Ep 4:What Happens in the Past Stays in the Past
by Keith Shaw
Summary: <html><head></head>Vacation plans for Buck and Wilma are drastically altered when both are targeted for assasination. When implications of Buck's involovment with Earth's holocaust arise, Buck and Wilma must take action to prevent interstellar war, or another holocaust.</html>
1. Chapter 1

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE PAST

(STAYS IN THE PAST)

By Keith M. Shaw

_Author's Note:_

_I apologize to fans of Buck Rogers and me for not writing recently. With the combination of work, life, family, my band, football season, hockey season, and a Playstation 3 game called White Knight Chronicles, there just hasn't been enough hours in the day to get everything done that I would like. But now that football and hockey season is done (at least for me and my teams!), hopefully I'll have more time to write. I have a couple Buck Rogers projects underway, two solo and one soon to be posted collaboration with another Buck Rogers author. The first solo one will hopefully bring some resolution to Buck's feeling guilty about the holocaust. The second one will bring back Princess Ardala for her coronation, which will not exactly go as planned! So thank you for being patient with me and hopefully you'll like the new stories as much as the first three. If I do lapse, please do not hesitate to coax me into posting more. Sometimes I just need some outside motivation! And please keep the reviews coming. I do listen to them, and often I respond personally to them. Without further ado, I present chapter 1._

_If you have not read my story entitled "A Stitch in Time" yet, please read it before this story. It will make a lot more sense!_

Chapter 1

The kitchen was abuzz with activity. Buck Rogers scurried about the cook stove and the counter top like a rabbit being chased by a fox, the whole time muttering almost inaudible gibberish to himself. Faintly he heard the apartment door open, but didn't bother to turn around to see who it was. As soon as the door closed, he heard the unmistakable sounds of metal feet trotting across the living room floor toward the kitchen.

"Hi, Twiki," Buck said, without looking up from his concoction.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Hi'ya, Buck."

"Did you enjoy your date with Tina?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Beep-be-de-de-beep: What a lady!"

Buck had to grin and turn around to face the little ambuquad. "So how often does her cruise ship get into port?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: not enough."

Buck nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean, Little Buddy. I know what you mean."

He turned back around to layer another row of wide noodles into the pan. He then picked up the container of sauce and poured it overtop the noodles.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: is Wilma coming over tonight?"

Buck nodded. "Yep. We're all set to go on our vacation tomorrow so I'm making her dinner tonight."

"Do you know where you're taking her yet?"

Buck shook his head. "Nope. I'm just winging it. I'll point my ship in a direction and let the winds take us where they will."

"What'cha making for dinner?"

Buck turned to face the quad again. He stood up tall and puffed out his chest. "Lasagna and garlic toast, made from fresh homemade bread."

"Where did you get all the ingredients?"  
>Buck smirked slightly. "Don't ask."<p>

"What if Wilma asks?"

His smirk widened slightly. "I think she knows better than to ask anymore."

He turned around and opened the oven door, then carefully placed the pan onto the first rack. When the pan was safely inside, he slowly closed the door and smiled.

"There, it's in. Give it an hour to cook, then I'll throw the bread in for a few minutes and we'll be ready to eat!"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: you need to write a cookbook, Buck."

Buck broke into laughter. "Right..., a cookbook. Of all the..." Suddenly he stopped for a moment, furrowed his eyebrows, and rubbed his chin. "A cookbook," he mused softly. "That's not such a bad idea, Twiki!"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: you could call it, 'Not Your Parents' Cookbook.'"

Buck nodded once as he continued to muse on the idea. "Cookbook. That's not a bad idea," he repeated.

Just then the door buzzer sounded. Buck lay down his spatula and moved quickly toward the door. He looked at the mini monitor and saw a man in a brown uniform carrying some kind of package. He turned to face the little android.

"Twiki, have you been ordering things on my card again?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: not since you changed your password again," he admitted.

"You mean I finally came up with a password you can't figure out?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: it's only a matter of time, Buck. I'll figure out this one too, heh heh."

Buck merely nodded once. "Good luck."

The door buzzer sounded again. Finally Buck tapped the button to allow the door to slide open almost silently. The deliveryman quickly showed his identification badge. "Good afternoon, sir. I'm from Interstellar Package Delivery Corp. I have a delivery for a Buck Rogers."

Buck nodded again. "That's me." He reached into his back pocket to find his identification card. He showed it to the deliveryman for confirmation. "I wasn't expecting anything. Who's it from?"

The man looked at the invoice on his digital readout. "It's from someone named Hieronomous Fox."

Buck smiled broadly at the sound of the name. "Ahh, I wonder what he's sending me this time."

He signed the digital scanner and accepted the package. "Thank you, Sir," the man said cheerfully. "Have a nice evening."

"Yeah, you too."

The man turned on his heels and swiftly moved down the hall. Buck backed back into the apartment as the door slid shut.

"I wonder what he sent me this time?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: you _did_ tell him not to send you anymore of his special hot sauce, didn't you?"

Buck instantly nodded once. "Oh, yeah. I love hot sauce, but that stuff was nasty! Stunk up the entire apartment for a week."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: it even burned my eyes!"

Buck grinned and shook his head. "Right." He handed the package to the quad. "Here, put this on the coffee table, would you? I have to go work on my garlic toast."

Twiki accepted the package as Buck quickly crossed the apartment toward the kitchen area. "Beep-be-de-de-beep: what do you think it is?"

Buck shrugged as he leaned down behind the counter to find a sharp knife out of the drawer. "Dunno. Knowing Hieronomous, though, it could be anything. I didn't smell anything through the packaging."

Suddenly a loud explosion sounded throughout the apartment. Buck tried to stand up, but was thrown backwards by the force of the blast. Instantly the entire apartment filled with noxious fumes and smoke. Buck started to crawl toward the front door, but only managed to get a few feet before succumbing to the fumes and smoke. He collapsed to the floor in a heap.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Slowly Buck stepped through the open door. He ambled across Doctor Huer's office and eased himself into the chair on the other side of the desk from the older man. Doctor Huer looked into the pale face and empty eyes of the Captain as the door slowly closed.

"Buck! I heard what happened! Are you alright?"  
>Buck simply nodded once. "Yeah..., thanks to Twiki. Someone tried to kill me," he muttered.<p>

"Yes, I heard. How is Twiki?"

He closed his eyes and rested his head against the high-backed chair. "Not good. I don't know how he did it, but the rescue workers tell me that it looks like he managed to get me out of the apartment before the smoke killed me. I understand he took the brunt of the blast, though."

Huer nodded. "Yes. He's down in the lab right now, but it doesn't look good. He received some massive damage to his frame and his internal circuits. It's a miracle he was able to pull you from the apartment before his circuits overloaded. Doctor Theopolis is down there right now assisting in any way he can. How are _you_ doing?"

Buck shrugged. "I'll be okay."

Huer propped his elbows upon the desk. "So do you know what happened?"

Buck shook his head. "All I know is that I went to the door to get a package delivery. I gave the package to Twiki while I went into the kitchen to work on dinner."

The elder man nodded. "Do you know where the package came from?"  
>Again he shook his head. "It had Hieronomous Fox's name and address, but I sincerely doubt it came from him."<p>

"No, of course not."

Buck sighed, glanced up to look across the desk. "Isn't there supposed to be some kind of security protocol that detects bombs?" he asked angrily.

"There is," Huer admitted as he rose to his feet. He stepped out from behind the desk to sit at the corner nearest Buck. "But the system's not perfect. Every day people are inventing new types of bombs, new technologies to get around our technology, and basically new methods to kill and terrorize other people. It's just so hard to keep up."

Buck sighed again, closed his eyes tiredly. "I know, Doc. I didn't mean to take it out on you."

Huer grinned wanly and nodded. "I know. You're worried about Twiki. But that's not why I called you in to see me."

Buck opened his eyes again to look up at Huer. "Don't tell me. You want me to come up with a list of people who might be capable of doing this or a list of people who would like to see me dead. At this point both lists would be pretty long."

"No, not at all," Huer said, shaking his head. "Actually, -"

Just then the door swung open and a tall woman in a blue form-fitting flight suit rushed into the room. Both men turned to face the attractive woman.

"Colonel Deering," Huer started.

"Doctor Huer," she breathed excitedly. "Someone just tried to kill me!"

Buck jumped to his feet and rushed to Wilma's side. "What? How?"  
>Wilma furrowed her eyes slightly. "Buck, what are you doing here? You look terrible!"<p>

"Thanks," he muttered. "You don't look so good yourself."

Doctor Huer stood up and positioned another chair beside the one Buck had been using. "Please, both of you sit."

Wilma looked questioningly at Doctor Huer. "What's going on?"  
>"Someone tried to kill me too," Buck admitted.<p>

Wilma's eyes widened beyond normal proportions. "What? Really?"

Buck nodded as he led Wilma to the new chair. "Yeah. I got a package delivery that blew up in my apartment. Got Twiki pretty bad."

"Oh, Buck, I'm sorry. I know how much Twiki means to you. How bad is it?"  
>He merely shook his head. "Bad. He did manage to save my life, though. I don't know how he did it. But what happened to you?"<p>

Wilma sat up in the chair. "Oh, right! I just got off duty and I was returning to my apartment to get ready for our dinner tonight. Just as I opened the door, Doctor Huer called me over the radio saying he wanted to see me here in the office immediately. I turned right around and started down the hall. As soon as the door closed, the apartment blew up!"

"A timing mechanism," Buck explained.

"Huh?"

"Someone set up a bomb to blow, say fifteen seconds after the door opened."

"Why?"

"That would let the door close and give you time to get into the middle of the room where you would receive the most possible damage and highest probability of death," Buck replied.

"But why?" Wilma asked, looking at both Buck and then Doctor Huer. "I can understand trying to kill one of us at a time, but both of us? At the same time? What's going on? Who could have done this? Who could have orchestrated the timing to hit us both at the same time?"

"I was just starting to work on a list of possibilities," Buck said.

Doctor Huer sat down at the edge of the desk again. "That may not be necessary," he interrupted.

Buck and Wilma exchanged surprised glances, then turned slowly toward the elder man. "Huh?" they asked in unison.

Doctor Huer nodded as he stood. "That's why I contacted you, Colonel." He turned and stepped to a monitor on the wall. He tapped a button and then turned around. "This video transmission just came in moments ago. It concerns both of you." He glanced directly at Buck. "I'm sorry I was unable to contact you before your ordeal."

Huer stepped away from the monitor and returned to his desk. The monitor almost immediately showed the face of a young man. Buck's eyes widened slightly in recognition of the face on the monitor. He quickly averted them from the screen to glance at Wilma and Huer, but neither noticed. He turned his attention back to the screen just as the young man began to speak.

"I am sending this transmission to Earth Defense Directorate with special attention to Doctor Elias Huer. This transmission carries a code one Numex inscription, only accessible by Earth Defense Directorate. Do not ask how I have obtained this inscription code. Suffice it to say that it is of the utmost importance that no one sees this transmission who is not authorized to do so. I need to warn you that two of your agents may be in extreme and immediate danger. The names of the two agents are Colonel Wilma Deering, and Captain William "Buck" Rogers. I can not explain why at this current moment. I don't have that much time. Suffice it to say that I am also in danger from the same assassins that now threaten Colonel Deering and Captain Rogers. I have been living in isolation and seclusion for two years. Only recently have I learned about certain happenings. I just pray that I am not too late. It might be simpler if I show you something that I have in my possession; something that I believe threatens all of us. This video log has been in my family's possession for many years. I have removed the audio for this transmission, but believe me that the original still has extremely good audio and video quality. Here, watch this."

The man's face moved away from the monitor. Within seconds, an image of outer space filled the monitor. In the direct center of the monitor was a tiny blue dot that began to grow in size exponentially until Buck finally recognized it.

"Earth," he breathed softly.

"No, it can't be," Wilma countered. "Earth doesn't look like that."

"It used to," Buck stated simply. "Before..."

Buck stood and approached the monitor. He pointed out North America, South America, Washington DC, the great lakes, and several other features. Suddenly plumes of smoke appeared on the screen, followed rapidly by more and more plumes which quickly took the shape of mushrooms. Buck instantly turned away from the screen to face Wilma, but she too had turned away from the monitor. Huer cocked his head to one side, his eyes glued to the screen.

"What is this?" he asked.

Buck took a long, deep breath and held it for the longest moment, before slowly releasing it. "It's the start of the holocaust," he said softly, almost inaudibly.

The video played for a few more seconds before the man came back into view. "Once again to reiterate, this is just a brief video clip. I have the entire log that contains this small clip. There are many people in my government that would be willing to kill for this log and the information I have in my possession. I have been living in exile for two years, hiding from those who would kill me. If I am not too late, I must ask for Colonel Deering and Captain Rogers to meet me on a planet in the gamma sector called Trixtania. Get a room at the Aurora Hotel under the name of Mr. and Mrs. Carey Leonard. I will then contact you once you check in. If the video didn't convince you, maybe this will. My name is Vaahn."

Wilma jerked her head to look at Buck who barely nodded once. Her eyes widened just as Buck's had just moments before.

"Please come," the transmission continued. "There is more at stake here than just my life and the life of your two agents. Much more. The lives of my planet and your planet could be at stake if this information gets into the wrong hands. I must go. Please meet me on Trixtania. Thank you for your cooperation, and I pray that I'm not too late."

The image faded to black. Huer returned to his feet as Buck returned to the chair beside Wilma. Doctor Huer deactivated the monitor and turned to face his two best agents and friends.

"I don't know what's going on here," he started slowly, "But since he specifically mentioned the two of you, I deemed it necessary enough to involve you. I'm going to send this transmission to the lab technicians and the Directorate Council for authenticity testing. Needless to say, I do not intend to allow either one of you to go anywhere that is so obviously a trap as this."

Buck and Wilma exchanged glances again. They both sighed in unison. Buck stood up to sit at the edge of the desk.

"That won't be necessary, Doc."

Huer furrowed his eyebrows in bewilderment. "What are you talking about, Buck?"

"The video is real. All of it."

"Good Heavens, how can you be certain? If this is indeed a video record of the beginning of Earth's holocaust, how did someone manage to obtain images of it?"

Buck lowered his head and eyes to the floor for a moment before catching Wilma's glance. They shared a long, painful look before she couldn't take any more and had to look away. Finally Buck raised his eyes to look at Doctor Huer just as Wilma spoke.

"The video log is real," she spoke softly, hesitantly. "And if he has the entire video log including audio...," Her voice broke off for the longest moment. She took a long breath and slowly continued. "The audio may include transmissions from a small scout ship in Earth orbit."

Huer cocked his head again to one side. "A small scout ship?" he queried.

She nodded. "Yes. The scout ship had two passengers; a male and a female."

"Just how do you know about this?" Huer asked. "Don't tell me you've seen this video before?" he exclaimed.

She shook her head violently. "No, we haven't seen the video."

"We didn't have to," Buck blurted.

Doctor Huer turned slowly to face Buck. "Then how-?"

"Because we were there," Wilma finally announced softly.

Doctor Huer's head jerked to look at Wilma, and then back at Buck who simply nodded once.

Buck closed his eyes, lowered his head, and slumped back into the high-backed chair. "We were there," he repeated in a hollow monotone. "We were there."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Doctor Huer's eyes widened in surprise. "What do you mean you were there?" he asked incredulously.

Buck and Wilma paused for the longest minute before Wilma finally began to speak. "Remember a couple weeks ago when we tested that prototype fighter?"

"Yes, the invisibility test flight."

"That's the one."

"If I recall correctly, the flight ended in disaster."

Wilma nodded. "Yes. Buck lost control of the fighter and we crashed into a mountain."

"That fighter took two years to build," Huer said. "Doctor Avery was very, oh how should I say this,...?"

"Pissed off?" Buck asked.

Doctor Huer furrowed his eyes. "I'm not exactly sure what that means, but if I get the connotation correctly, yes. He was very upset and angry with both of you. He was very adamant that you crashed deliberately. I had to assure him that neither one of you would ever do that."

Buck grinned wanly and looked away from the elder man. "I _did_ crash it deliberately," he admitted.

"Oh dear," Huer sighed as he moved behind the desk. "I think I'd better sit down for this."

Wilma sat up in the chair and placed her hands on the edge of the desk. "Remember what Doctor Theopolis stated in his report? He said that during the whole experimentation portion of the flight, Buck and I were non responsive. In fact, Twiki had to disengage the device because neither Buck nor I could."

"Yes, I remember that. And I sent both of you to the lab to be completely checked out, physically and mentally. There appeared to be nothing wrong with either one of you."

Buck shook his head once. "They were wrong," he muttered.

Huer moved his head slightly toward Buck. "Hmm?"

Buck simply shook his head and waved nonchalantly. "Nothing."

Huer stared at Buck for a long moment before turning back to Wilma. "Let's get back to how you know about the beginning of the holocaust."

Wilma nodded, hesitated. "We're not exactly sure what happened or how," she started, indicating Buck to her left. "But something happened as soon as we activated the experimental device. Buck and I were transported back in time."

Huer cocked his head. "Transported back in time?" he echoed. "How? I don't believe that's possible. I remember reading the preliminary reports of possible scenarios on the experiment, but this was definitely NOT one of the possible side affects."

Buck shrugged. "Maybe it wasn't listed, but it happened."

"Maybe you simply lost consciousness and dreamed that you were transported back in time," he proffered. "That _was_ one of the possible side affects. That's why I sent Twiki and Doctor Theopolis with you. If the two of you lost consciousness, Twiki could deactivate the device, which is what happened."

"It wasn't a dream," Buck argued.

"We both had the exact same experience," Wilma added. "If it had been a dream, then we would have had separate dreams. No, we were definitely sent back in time together."

"Do you know what year?"

Buck and Wilma nodded in unison. "1987," they replied together.

Doctor Huer closed his eyes and leaned back. "Of course," he stated simply. He contemplated silently for a couple moments before opening his eyes again. "Okay. Let's presume that you were transplanted back in time to 1987. What did the two of you do?"

Buck and Wilma exchanged hesitant glances. "We, uh, may have, uh," Wilma stammered.

"We started the holocaust," Buck announced.

If Doctor Huer hadn't been seated squarely in the chair, he would have fallen to the floor. His legs became weak, his heart raced, his face turned pale. "What?" he exclaimed. "Oh, I don't believe that! There is no way the two of you could have started the holocaust. It's out of the question."

Wilma took a deep breath and sighed. "No, it's true. Buck and I started the holocaust. But we had a good reason."

Huer shook his head. "I still don't believe you could have started the holocaust." He paused for a moment as he absorbed the shock of their confessions. Again he shook his head, looked up. "Okay, say I believe you. What reason do you have for starting the holocaust? This I have to hear."

"It was the only way to save the Earth," Wilma stated calmly.

Huer furrowed his brows. "Save the Earth? Five billion people died!"

"Six," Buck corrected.

Huer shot a glance at Buck ever so briefly before looking back at Wilma. He shook his head yet again. "No, I can't believe it."

Buck stood and moved toward the wall monitor. Both Huer and Wilma followed him with their eyes intently. Buck tapped a button on the console and the previously played message from 'Vaahn' began to play again. When the video turned to the plumes of smoke just starting to appear, Buck tapped the button again to pause the playback.

"Doctor Huer, can you enhance this portion of video?" he asked, pointing to a point in space above what Buck had described as Lake Michigan.

Huer stood up and moved to the console on the wall. He manipulated the buttons for a moment before glancing at Buck out of the corner of his eye. "What am I looking for?" he asked.

"A small scout ship."

Huer nodded. It took about a minute before the computer locked onto a small object in the target area. In seconds, the form of a small scout ship appeared on the magnified screen. Huer turned hesitantly to face Buck.

"How did you know that would be there?"

"Because Wilma and I were on that scout ship," Buck answered, pointing toward the screen.

Huer shook his head. "But why? How?"

"This video was apparently taken from the logs of a warship," Wilma said. "A warship we had just escaped from."

"Escaped?" Huer asked. He shook his head and his shoulders slumped as he returned to the desk. "I'd better sit down."

Wilma nodded. "Yes, you should. Especially after we tell you whose warship it was," she said cryptically.

He glanced up at her questioningly, but remained still. Wilma glanced at Buck who simply nodded once.

"To tell you the truth, we didn't know what was going on at the time either," Wilma continued. "We didn't know if we were dreaming the same dream, or actually living the moment. After the events depicted here in the video, the warship retreated back through the stargate and Buck and I landed the scout ship inside a crater at the south pole of the moon. When Twiki deactivated the experimental device, we returned to the present. When Buck realized the ramifications of the experiment, he decided to crash the ship into the side of the mountain to delay any further development on the project. No one should have to experience what we went through. After we passed all our medical tests, we took a starfighter and went to the moon where we had parked the scout ship after the holocaust."

"Guess what we found," Buck interrupted.

Huer shook his head. "I'm afraid to ask."

"We found the scout ship," Wilma answered. "Exactly where we had placed it. There were no bodies in the ship, nothing to indicate anything was wrong with it, with the exception that its power had been drained. In fact, it's probably still space worthy. But anyway, we boarded the ship and downloaded the flight log from the ship onto a flash drive."

Buck reached inside his shirt to pull out a chain he wore around his neck. A small rectangular flash drive was attached to the chain. He removed the drive and tried to hand it to Doctor Huer. Instead, Huer merely waved him off and indicated the wall monitor. Buck removed the protective cap and inserted the flash drive into the computer core.

A moment later the monitor showed a hangar deck. The view screen rotated until the form of an old fashioned space shuttle appeared. Buck pointed, closed his eyes. "Ranger Three," he muttered. The view continued to rotate until it focused on the launch tube. Buck turned a knob on console to amplify the sound. He turned away from the monitor to look at Doctor Huer. When Buck's voice and then Wilma's voice sounded on the video, they both stared into the face of the elder man. If Huer were shocked or surprised, he didn't show it. Buck crossed the room and sat down beside Wilma.

In silence the three of them watched the forty-five minute broadcast of events that had unfolded. They saw the encounter with the frozen space shuttle; the dogfight with the enemy fighters; the video transmissions from Captain Arnogg; the discussion/ argument between Buck and Wilma just before the start of the holocaust; the retreat of the warship; the landing inside a crater on the moon. When the screen faded to blackness, the room became still, silent, cold. Finally Doctor Huer sighed heavily. He slowly turned to face the two pilots sitting across from the desk.

"Just how long were you this alternate time period?" he asked.

Buck shrugged. "About a week."

"But the test only lasted thirty-three seconds! How is that possible?"

Wilma shrugged.

Huer took a deep breath and hesitated. "If the Council sees this video and finds out what really happened... that my two best agents and pilots... had a hand in starting the holocaust..."

Buck nodded. "That's why we didn't want to tell you."

"How long were you going to wait to tell me?"

Buck grinned wanly, shrugged his shoulders. "I had no intentions of ever telling you. I was trying to deal with it myself."

"Ourselves," Wilma corrected.

"And you, Colonel Deering? Leaving this out of your official report? This is a court martial offense."

"Yes, Sir," she nodded.

Sadly Huer shook his head. He folded his hands together. "And Gauss?" he said incredulously. "No one would ever guess in a million years that Gauss had a hand in our holocaust! They were planning on killing the entire planet? They're one of our closest allies! Probably THE closest ally we have! They were the ones who helped us rebuild the most! Most of our current technology is based on Gaussian technology!"

"That's why we were reluctant to say anything," Wilma said softly. "And that might be why Gauss IS one of our closest allies."

"I don't understand."

"When we got back, I did some checking on Gaussian history," Wilma said.

"But Gauss is very secretive about their history," Huer replied.

Wilma nodded. "That might be why Buck and I are in trouble. Someone may have found out that I was checking into their history. I thought I was very careful, but maybe not as careful as I thought. Anyway, I couldn't find out anything through official or unofficial channels, so I had to find out what information I could through what Buck called the 'back door.' When we were aboard the warship Archeas, we became involved with a plot to kill their Prime Minister, a man named Turon. His Deputy Minister was named Kentara. Believe it or not, both these name appeared in the history I was able to dig up. Both Minister Turon and Prime Minister Kentara were assassinated while on a supposed reconnaissance trip to an unnamed planet. The name of the warship was the Archeas. After the assassination, the Archeas returned to Gauss and a massive civil war broke out. It not only included the planet of Gauss, but also all the satellite planets they had colonized. The civil war was massive, brutal, and extremely deadly. Ninety percent of their combined populations died during the eight year conflict. When the conflict was finally decided, a man named Vaahn took power and began to rebuild Gauss and the colonies."

"Vaahn?" Huer asked. "The same name as the video."

"We can only assume that he is a descendent."

"He did say that the video has been in his family for a very long time," Buck said.

"Indeed," Huer agreed.

"With all the damage that had occurred during the war, not just physical but sociological, economical, and technological, it took them about two hundred years to recover. Once they were sound, they returned to Earth to help rebuild the damage here. Apparently there was a bylaw instituted in their constitution that ordered the reconstruction efforts of Earth. The writers of their constitution felt responsible for the damage Earth had received, so they felt it was their obligation to help us rebuild. That last part is highly confidential in their government. Don't ask me how I got this information," Wilma breathed.

Huer nodded in agreement. "If the Council finds out that Gauss is ultimately responsible for the start of the holocaust..."

"We could have a war on our hands," Buck stated.

"It could turn into a massive interplanetary war," Huer agreed. "The Council may demand that Gauss pay massive reparations for their role in this."

"Or if this information gets out to the rest of the galaxy, Gauss may break into another civil war and then decide the best course of action is to finish the job they started five hundred years ago and totally wipe us out."

Wilma glanced at Buck who merely shrugged his shoulders. "What? It could happen?"

"Yes," Huer agreed. "We have to tread very lightly here. So what do you propose we do?"

Buck and Wilma exchanged glances. "We have to go to Trixtania," Wilma said.

"Out of the question!" Huer nearly exploded.

"Doc, it's the only way," Buck insisted. "We have to meet this Vaahn and see what he has!"

"How do you know you can trust this Vaahn?"

Buck shrugged. "We don't. But we can't just stay here and let the assassins continue trying to kill us until they succeed."

"But why now? Why didn't they try to kill you as soon as we revived you?"

"Maybe they didn't realize who we were until Wilma started digging into their history. Maybe someone high up in their government is behind this. I'm sure there's a lot of people in their government who would rather this information NOT be released to the general population of Earth, Gauss, or the rest of the galaxy."

"Yes, of course. That is information better not released."

Wilma pointed to the wall monitor. "And we have proof of their participation."

Buck stood up and quickly retrieved the flash drive. He pulled out his necklace and reattached the drive. Huer opened his mouth to say something, but Buck held out his hand to stop him.

"No offense, Doc, but I'll hold onto this. I feel safer if I'm carrying it."

Huer nodded. "Yes, of course. So you feel you must meet this Vaahn."

Wilma and Buck both nodded. "Yes," she replied. "We have to find out what he knows and figure out where we go from there."

Huer paused for the longest moment before finally breathing a heavy sigh. "Very well. You will have my full support on any action you take. Of course, I will be unable to sanction anything you do."

"If we are caught or killed, the Council will disavow any knowledge."

"Quite right. So what kind of cover story are we going to use?"

Buck glanced at Wilma. "Well, we were planning to take a vacation together anyway. Just tell everyone we're going on vacation to an undisclosed location."

Huer nodded. Just as Wilma stood and headed for the exit, a buzz sounded from Doctor Huer's desk. He tapped a button and a face appeared on his personal monitor.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Doctor Huer, this is the Infirmary. We just found a man fitting the description Captain Rogers gave us of the bomber."

"Excellent! Hold him right there."

The woman smirked sarcastically. "Oh, that won't be a problem. He's dead."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Doctor Huer led Buck and Wilma through the facility to the infirmary. When they entered the large room, a woman looked up from her work station. She set down the notepad she had been writing notes on and stepped up to meet them.

"Doctor Huer."

"Doctor Estes."

The woman glanced up at Buck briefly. "Hello again, Captain Rogers; Colonel Deering."

They nodded acknowledgment. She turned her body, but continued to look at Buck. "This way, please."

She walked down a long row of beds to the very end of the room. She stepped up to the last bed and removed the sheet covering a body. Buck took a quick glance at the dead body and nodded.

"That's him. That's the man who delivered the bomb to my apartment."

Doctor Estes placed the sheet back over the body. She nodded to an assistant across the room. "You may take him to the morgue, now."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Estes led them back toward her work station. "Do you have an ID on him?" asked Huer.

"We've identified him as Braedon Dickinson. He is employed by Interstellar Package Delivery Corp. He appears to be who he really is."

"Chances are he didn't even know he was delivering a bomb," Buck offered.

"Probably."

"How did he die?" Wilma wondered.

"Single gun blast to the back of the head."

Buck shook his head. "Execution style."

"Where was he found?"

Estes typed a password into her console. "Apparently one of the worker drones found him in a garbage dumpster just before the contents of the container got incinerated."

"Somebody threw him in a garbage can," Buck muttered. "Thrown in a dumpster behind K-Mart."

Estes looked at him strangely. "K-Mart?" she questioned.

Buck simply shook his head. "Someone didn't want him being found."

"Indeed."

"So what kind of leads do we have on him or the bomb?" Huer asked.

Estes shrugged. "It's still a little early to deduce anything. He appears to be legitimate."

"At least he used to be," Buck said.

"Yes," she continued. "There wasn't much left of the bomb to figure anything out. The ambuquad took most of the damage. I don't really know how it was able to move after receiving that kind of damage, let alone pull the captain from the apartment."

"How is Twiki?"

She glanced at Buck apologetically. "I'll not lie to you, Captain. He's not good."

"Can I see him?"

She hesitated for a moment before Doctor Huer nodded. She sighed softly. "Don't expect a good scene."

She locked her work station and started toward the other side of the infirmary. She slid a keycard into a slot and a door at the end of the room opened. She waved them all in, and then followed behind. Inside the small room was a single table with a small figure lying on its back. The room was dark with the exception of a single beam of light illuminating the table and the drone. Beside the droid sat another shape, a circular object with flashing lights in the center. Buck slowly approached the table. Cautiously he reached out his right hand to stroke the top of the little ambuquad's dented head, careful not to touch any of the hundreds of wires connecting Twiki to the computer behind him.

"How's it look, Theo?"

The lights on the circular object flashed red and green. "Twiki has sustained major internal damage," he said. "His exterior shell managed to shield him pretty well, but as you can see, even that is heavily damaged. Twiki has lost all internal functions. He is blind, deaf, and mute, and has lost all motor skills. I do not wish to get your hopes up, Captain Rogers. We may be able to fix the damage, but there is a possibility that the Twiki you know now will not be the same Twiki... ever."

Buck closed his eyes and silently said a prayer. At last he sighed, opened his eyes. "Do whatever you can for him, Doc. Both of you. Just don't change him. Don't reprogram him, don't wipe his memory clean, nothing. I want him back the way he was. Exactly how he was."

Doctor Estes stepped up to the table and gently placed a hand on Buck's arm. "That may not be possible," she said softly.

Buck clenched his teeth and sighed heavily. "If you can't repair him back to what he was, then I don't want him back."

Wilma stepped up. "Buck, you don't mean that! Twiki means so much to you."

"Yes he does. Twiki is my best friend; the best friend a man could ask for. But if he can't be fixed to what he was, then he's not the same person I know."

"If we can't restore him back to his original functions, he'll still be very serviceable. We'll fix him up just like new," Estes promised.

"I don't want a new droid," Buck said adamantly. "I want Twiki. He's unique."

Doctor Estes shrugged. "What's so special about this drone?"

Buck grinned slightly. "He's Twiki. He's smart, witty, loyal, and he saved my life. You just wouldn't understand."

"We will do our best, Captain Rogers," Theo said.

Buck nodded. "I know you will." He turned to face Wilma and Huer. "I'm gonna find out who did this," he vowed. "Nobody does this to my Little Buddy. I'll find him and he's going to pay."

Wilma shook her head. "We'll find him," she corrected.

Buck nodded again. "Thanks, Wilma. Let's get moving."

Buck, Wilma, and Huer left the infirmary and headed down the hall back towards the inner Directorate buildings. "So when are you planning on leaving?" Huer asked.

"As soon as possible," Buck answered. "I'm ready to go right now."

"You're not going to pack?"  
>He glared at the doctor out of the corner of his eye. "What am I going to pack? My apartment is nothing but a smoldering ember."<p>

Huer nodded. "Yes, of course. What about you, Colonel?"

"I'm with Buck. I'm ready to go right now too."

"Very well. I still don't like the idea of sending you two into something unknown like this, but I suppose it can't really be helped. On a good note, I can have your apartments repaired and restocked while you're gone."

"Do you remember my size?" Buck asked without a smile.

"I think we can manage," Huer said, grinning. "I'll even furnish you with a couple plants, if Doctor Juneas from the archives can find any."

"Thanks. Wilma, want to get something to eat before we leave?"

"Sure. I was really looking forward to your, what was it, lasagna?"

"Lasagna and garlic bread. Unfortunately it's a little well done, now. Although, they say if the noodles stick to the wall, they're done."

Buck glanced to his left and right at the glazed looks of his companions. He shrugged and sighed. "Nevermind."

They entered the monorail station and waited patiently for the next train. Considering the late hour, it was not surprising to see no one in the station. Wilma sat down on the nearest bench while Buck stepped up to the railing and looked up and down the transparent tube. Huer decided to join Wilma on the bench. Silently they waited a few minutes until the sound of a train echoed throughout the tunnels. Buck looked to his right to see the headlights of the train.

"Here it comes," he said.

Doctor Huer cocked his head curiously. "That's not right," he muttered.

"What isn't?" asked Wilma.

"That's the wrong direction. It's supposed to come from that direction," he said, pointing left.

Buck looked down the left tunnel to see another set of headlights. He turned quickly to face Wilma and Huer.

"RUN!" he yelled.

Wilma leaped to her feet while Buck rushed toward the bench and grabbed Huer's wrist. They quickly ran back into the corridor and headed down the hall. Just as the door closed behind them, the two monorail trains collided. Broken metal, glass, and debris smashed through the door before the automated defense countermeasures could activate. Once they were a safe distance down the hall, they stopped and exchanged unsure looks. When the debris stopped flying, Buck sprinted back down the hall toward the station.

"Buck!" Wilma called.

When he didn't respond, Wilma began to run after him. Buck reached the station and began throwing debris out of the way to reach the trains. When Wilma reached the station a short time after, she immediately realized what he was doing.

"Buck! Buck!"

He stopped to look at her briefly. "Wilma, there might be survivors!"

She shook her head. "No," she called. "The trains were empty."

He stopped and stood up straight. "How can you be sure?"  
>"If there were any life signs aboard, the automated sensors would have alerted security. The alarms would be going off and the worker drones would be sifting through the debris."<p>

Doctor Huer walked through what was left of the station doors and examined the destruction. "That should have been impossible," he stated.

"I've never heard about two monorail trains colliding," Wilma added.

"That's because everything is electronically monitored by the Sub Council of Transportation. We haven't had a train wreck in over fifty years. That's when the computerized system was upgraded. I don't understand how an accident like this could have happened."

"Maybe it wasn't an accident."

They both stared at Buck blankly. Huer furrowed his eyes.  
>"If it was no accident, then you're suggesting sabotage?"<p>

"If it's impossible for them to collide naturally, then there must be something unnatural about it."

"Do you realize what you're suggesting?" Huer asked, eyes widened.

Buck grimaced and nodded. "Yeah. There's someone in the city who is capable of manipulating the Sub Council of Transportation."

"But how did he know we would be here at this particular time?" Wilma asked.

Buck looked around the station suspiciously. "We're being watched."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Huer wondered.

"We need to get to the hangar and get out of here immediately before anything else happens."

"But if we can't take public transportation, how are we going to get there?" asked Wilma.

"We're gonna have to walk."

"Do you know how far that is?"

He grinned sarcastically. "Would you rather take the train?" he asked, pointing at the wreckage.

Quickly she shook her head. "No, that's alright."

Buck turned to Doctor Huer. "You go back to the infirmary and stay there for awhile. There's no need to put you in any danger. Whoever is doing this is after Wilma and me, not you."

"Are you sure, Buck?"

"Yeah. You'll be safe if you're not near us."

Huer started to argue, but then decided against it. Buck was probably right. Instead, he shook Buck's hand and nodded. "Good luck."

"Thanks. We'll probably need it."

Doctor Huer started down the hall toward the infirmary. When he was out of sight, Buck took Wilma by the hand and started down an adjoining hall.

"Let's hurry up and get to the hangar."

She nodded. "I guess dinner's out of the question."

Buck grinned slightly. "Once we get to the ship, I'll stop at the drive through on the way out of town."

She shook her head once and rolled her eyes. "Okay. Can I have some potato chips?" she smirked.

Buck glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. His grin turned into a smile. "Sure. I'll get you the barbeque chips."

She shook her head. "I liked the sour cream and onion better."

Buck snapped his fingers. "That's right! Okay, sour cream and onion it is. And I'll have the filet mignon."

She looked at him and grinned. He shrugged. "What? If you can dream, so can I."

She sighed softly. "Right now I'm just dreaming of getting to the hangar safely so we can get to Trixtania and get to the bottom of this whole situation."

Buck nodded; his smile faded into oblivion. "We'll get there. Don't worry. Someone is going to pay. For Twiki."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Buck and Wilma left the station again and turned left down the hall. They walked for a couple minutes before Wilma stopped in front of a pair of double doors. Buck gently pulled on her hand to get her walking again.

"If we're going to walk to the hangar, we need to get to street level," she argued.

Buck nodded. "I know. But do you really want to take the elevator?"

"But we're seventeen floors above the street."

Buck stopped to look at her. "Think about it. Do you really want to take the elevator, knowing that someone has already tapped into the monorail systems?"  
>Sudden realization struck her face. "Ahh, you're right. I suppose we'll have to take the stairs."<p>

A short distance down the corridor was another set of doors. Buck opened these to reveal a narrow, steep stairwell. Wilma blinked deliberately. "Seventeen flights of stairs," she mumbled.

Buck grinned. "Just be glad we're going down and not up!"

She merely nodded as they started down the stairs. When they reached the bottom level, they stepped out onto the street. Buck looked up at the monorail and the station above them. Surprisingly the monorail tubes appeared to be in tact. Apparently all the damage from the wreck had blown out into the station area. He glanced at Wilma unsurely.

"The tubes are made from indestructible plastiglass," she explained.

He nodded. "Good thing."

She looked up at the dimly lit dome above them and the high buildings surrounding them. "Looks different from down here."

"What does?"

She pointed up. "The dome."

"You don't get down here much, do you?"

Wilma shook her head. "It can be dangerous on street level. Especially at this time of the night."

"What do you mean 'this time of the night'?"

She turned around to look up and down the deserted, darkened street. "Late at night, sometimes residents of Anarchia have been found lurking down here. Especially on extremely cold nights. They've been known to terrorize people and businesses who try to operate on street level."

"Then we'd better get moving."

They started walking down the street. They walked in silence for nearly half an hour before Wilma glanced out of the corner of her eye.

"You're awfully quiet tonight."

Buck nodded, frowned. "Having somebody trying to kill me generally puts me in a bad mood."

"You should be used to it by now."

"And I don't like it when people blow up my Twiki."

He continued to move down the street without even looking at Wilma. "I also don't like thinking about this whole idea of going to Trixtania to meet someone who may have information on my role in the holocaust."

Wilma sighed softly. "I know what you mean. When I learned about the holocaust in school, I always wanted to go back in time to meet the people who started it so I could shoot them in the head. I never thought in a million years that I would have to shoot myself."

"No. You'd have to shoot me. I'm the one who started it."

"Yeah, but I'm the one who talked you into it."

"Don't remind me."

They walked for another couple minutes before Wilma spoke again. "Actually, if you want to be philosophical, we didn't really start it. Minister Turon and Gauss did."

Buck stopped so suddenly that Wilma bumped him off the sidewalk. He turned to look at her. "Wilma, when you were digging up your information, did you by any chance talk to the Gaussian ambassador?"

She cocked her head to one side. "Of course. He was the first person I contacted. Diplomatic protocol says-"

He waved her off. "Did you mention why you wanted information on their history?"

She thought for a moment. "No."

"Did you mention any names in particular?"

"No, I don't think so?"

"You didn't say anything about Minister Turon, Kentara, or Captain Arnogg?"

She fell into thought for a long moment. "I may have mentioned Minister Turon's name," she finally admitted. "Why?"

"In the official Gaussian history that the rest of the galaxy knows, who was the first Prime Minister of Gauss?"

She furrowed her brows in thought. "Galactic history was never my strong suit. I believe it was...Vaahn?"

Buck nodded. "You said yourself that most of the information you gave us was highly classified, even still in Gaussian government. If the ambassador knows that we know about Turon..."

"The ambassador might be behind the attempts on our life!"

Buck nodded again. "If he's not behind it himself, then he probably has a pretty good idea who is!"

"And he wouldn't be the first ambassador we've had who tried to kill one of us."

"You said that most of our technology is based on Gaussian technology," Buck reminded. "If he's adept at the technology, he would have a real good idea how to get around our security protocols. He would know exactly how to tap into every system we have, or at least most of them."

"You're right," Wilma said after a moment's pause. "So what do you want to do?"

"Is there anything we can do?" he questioned. "He is the ambassador, after all. Don't they have diplomatic immunity, or something?"

Wilma sighed. "You're right. If it is the ambassador, then we really don't have any authority to do anything to him. We'll have to have Doctor Huer or the Council sanction him."

"But we have to be real sure he's the one behind this."

"Yes."

Buck started walking back down the street. "We can tell Doctor Huer our suspicions and let him handle it. There's not much we'll be able to do."

"Agreed. So you still want to get to the hangar?"

"Yeah. We can let the diplomats and authorities deal with him. We have a date with this Vaahn guy."

For the next hour they engaged in small talk, just to pass the time and boredom. Occasionally they would hear a muffled sound in the distance and Wilma would jerk her head to try to locate the source. That's when Buck would talk a little louder, partially to reassure Wilma that she wasn't alone, and partially to let the offending noisemaker know that they were prepared for anything. Finally they reached the basement of the Directorate Flight Deck. Wilma swiped her keycard and they then climbed the stairs to the main hangar deck.

The hangar deck was quiet. Not surprising, really, considering what time it was. Buck and Wilma crossed the hangar and climbed up the catwalk stairs to the controller's office. Sitting at the desk was a good looking blonde woman. She looked up and smiled broadly.

"Captain Rogers! Good to see you again! Going somewhere?"

"Yeah," Buck nodded. "We have to leave immediately. Top secret."

"Yeah, yeah, aren't all your flights top secret?" she asked with a gleam in her eye and a wink. "Like last night when you told me..."

Buck held up his hand to stop the woman. Wilma stepped out from behind Buck and into the office. The woman's blue eyes widened slightly.

"Oh, Colonel Deering. Sorry, I didn't see you standing there."

Wilma simply nodded as she glared at Buck for a moment. "Obviously. What kind of flight did you take last night?" she asked, glaring at Buck.

He shrugged one shoulder. "When I came back from New Phoenix yesterday afternoon, my, uh, thrusters weren't firing on time," he grinned. "I took the ship out last night to work out a few kinks."

"Uh huh," Wilma said unconvincingly.

The woman checked her console for a moment and tapped a few buttons. "Oh, good timing. It looks like your fighter just got back from maintenance. It's all ready to go, Captain."

Buck furrowed his brows, cocked his head to one side. "Maintenance?"

"Yeah. Hundred million mile checkup. It's good as new."

"What's wrong, Buck?" Wilma asked.

Buck scratched his chin. "I just had it in the shop last week for normal maintenance," he muttered.

"Well you did say that your thrusters weren't firing on time," she said sarcastically.

Buck nodded absently. "Who ordered the new checkup?"

She checked the computer again. "It says here that Doctor Huer ordered it."

Buck glanced at Wilma who merely shrugged. "Why would Doctor Huer order maintenance done on my ship?" he asked rhetorically.

"What about my ship?" she asked.

"Yours is done too."

"It had maintenance done on it too?"  
>"Sure did. It was ordered by Huer too."<p>

"Something smells fishy here," Buck muttered.

The woman started sniffing the air before she realized it was probably one of Buck's euphemisms. Quickly she sat down and tried to act casual. Buck and Wilma exchanged knowing glances. Buck pulled up a chair and set it down beside the woman. She looked at him nervously out of the corner of her eye.

"Can you do me a favor, Devyn?"

Her eyes darted nervously between Buck and Wilma. "It depends what you want me to do," she said finally.

"I need you to play with the security cameras a little."

"That's a violation of Directorate policy."

"I'll take full responsibility," Colonel Deering announced formally. "Buck, are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"

He glanced up and smirked. "Probably." He then turned to the attractive woman sitting beside him at the desk. Slyly he placed his hand on her thigh, out of Wilma's sight. "Do this for me, Devyn, and I'll owe you a favor."

"That'll be two you owe me," she murmured as a faint hint of a smile creased just one corner of her mouth.

Buck grinned slightly. "I can live with that."

Wilma simply rolled her eyes. Some things never change.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

After telling Devyn his plan, Buck slowly descended the catwalk stairs and crossed the hangar toward his ship. Wilma followed closely behind and strolled to her ship. They climbed into their respective cockpits and closed the hatch. Buck flipped a series of buttons and switches to bring the ship to life as he had a hundred times before. However, this time he did not hit the final switch to fire the engines. Instead he tapped another button on his console.

"Buck Rogers to Flight Control. I'm ready for launch extraction."

"Affirmative, Captain Rogers," Devyn's voice sounded over the com. "This is Flight Control. Activating the crane."

"Ten-four."

Buck looked out the hatch as a huge overhead crane moved across the ceiling of the high hangar. When the crane assembly was directly overhead, a massive claw descended overtop the starfighter. It gently, but easily picked up the ship and carried it across the hangar to the edge of the launch tube. Slowly it placed it on the conveyor belt that fed into the launch tube and then released.

"Colonel Deering to Flight Control. I'm ready for launch extraction."

"Affirmative, Colonel Deering. Activating crane two."

A second crane assembly moved overtop Wilma's starfighter and then picked up her ship. It carried the ship across the hangar and set it down directly behind Buck's on the conveyor belt. The two starfighters sat silently on the conveyor for several minutes until Devyn's voice sounded again.

"Flight Control to Captain Rogers; are you ready for launch?"

"Ten-Four."

""Affirmative. Take care Captain and be safe. Activating conveyor belt in three...two...one... launch!"

The conveyor belt lurched the starfighter forward into the launch tube. However, instead of the usual rapid acceleration down the tube Buck was used to, the ship slowly moved down the conveyor until it stopped just inside the tube.

"Starfighter has cleared launch tube. Flight Control to Colonel Deering; are you ready for launch?"

"Affirmative, Flight Control."

"Good luck, Colonel. Activating conveyor belt in three...two...one... launch!"

Once more the conveyor belt jerked forward, moving Wilma's fighter into the launch tube. Both starfighters moved slowly down the tube until Wilma's ship was fully inside the tube.

"Captain Rogers to Flight Control; I have cleared beacon six."

"Affirmative, Captain Rogers. You are clear for vertical ascension through the defensive shield."

"Thank you, Flight Control. Beginning vertical ascension."

Wilma paused for a moment to 'allow Buck to get ahead of her.' Then she tapped her com button. "Colonel Deering to Flight Control; I have cleared beacon six."

"Affirmative, Colonel. You are clear for vertical ascension."

"Thank you."

Buck leaned back in his seat. He moved his wrist so he could keep an eye on his watch. When the proper time passed, he tapped his com button. "Captain Rogers to Flight Control; I've cleared the defensive shield. About to commence radio silence."

"Affirmative, Captain. I have confirmation on your shield exodus. Come home safely, Captain."

"Ten-four. Rogers over and out."

Buck waited for a couple moments until Wilma also announced her 'exit' from the shield. Then he turned all the ship's systems off and popped the hatch. He practically jumped to the floor of the launch tube from the cockpit. He helped Wilma out of her ship and the two of them stepped to the edge of the launch tube and looked up at the flight controller's office. They could see Devyn hard at work on her console for several minutes before she finally looked out the window and waved at them. Buck nodded and then he and Wilma strolled across the hangar toward the catwalk stairs. They entered the office quietly. Devyn glanced up briefly before returning her gaze to the monitor. She continued to work for a moment before leaning back in her chair and looking up again.

"Mission complete," she grinned. "Well, almost."

"Almost?" Wilma asked.

She nodded. "Two explosions in three...two...one... fire."

Buck cocked his head to one side and listened intently. "Are you sure they exploded?" he asked unsurely.

Devyn grinned and nodded. "Trust me. We are now missing two subspace relay satellites. I'm sure the tech department is not going to be happy with me if they ever found out I overrode their programming and self-destructed them."

"I'm not gonna tell them," Buck proffered.

"You were acting under my orders," Wilma stated. "Besides, it was necessary to ensure planetary security."

"Or at least personal security," Buck grinned.

Wilma smiled broadly. "I believe I said that." She turned to face Devyn. "You'd better alert the security council of our 'deaths'."

A sudden look of concern crossed the flight controller's face. "Ahh, right!" she tapped a button on her console to activate the silent alarm. Then she picked up her com link. "Directorate Hangar One, Flight Controller Devyn speaking; we've had an incident! Two starfighters have disappeared from radar and two explosions have been monitored at their last approximate locations! Captain Buck Rogers and Colonel Wilma Deering are at this moment missing, presumed dead! The explosions have also eliminated two subspace relay stations, numbers three and eight! Please send appropriate personnel for investigation and confirmation! Sabotage is a very high probable cause!"

She deactivated the com and looked up. She smirked. "You are now dead."

Buck clapped his hands together. "Okay, now that our assassin thinks we're dead, what's our best course of action?"

Wilma stepped toward the plexiglass overlooking the launch tube. "Well, with the two subspace relay satellites that served New Chicago out of commission, our assassin is going to have to use the relay stations in orbit around the stargate. And to access them, he'll have to be free of Earth's shield."

"So he'll have to take his ship into orbit and then alert his superiors of our 'untimely demise'?"

"Exactly."

Buck nodded as he thought for a moment. He nodded, grinned as he turned towards Devyn. "Do you know where the Gaussian ambassador's shuttle is located?"

Devyn frowned and then bit her upper lip. "You are really going to get me fired!"

Buck smiled. "You're already in this deep with us. You might as well go all the way," he said.

"That's what you said...," she started to say but immediately stopped herself. Instead she looked up at Buck's smiling face and smirked slightly herself. "I can find out, but it's going to cost you another favor."

Buck simply shrugged. "Put it on my tab."

Devyn nodded and then turned back to the monitor. She worked for a minute before she glanced up again. "The Gaussian ambassador's shuttle is in the secure wing; bay number one seven three."

"Thanks. I'll make it up to you." Buck turned to Wilma. "I'll go down to the ambassador's shuttle and wait for him there. You take a fighter and wait for us in orbit. But wait until after he's made his transmission before you confront him."

"Okay, Buck. Which ship should I take? Our starfighters are out of commission."

"I don't care. Take Major Danton's. He won't mind."

Wilma turned to Devyn. "I'll need you to clear the launch tube."

"Already working on it," she said as she worked her monitor.

"Oh, and send our fighters back to maintenance," Buck mentioned. "The REAL maintenance department. And tell them to look for anything suspicious. And tell them to be real careful."

"I'll put in the request as soon as I move them back into their position."

"How much time do we have?" Buck asked Devyn.

"I estimate you have about three minutes before I have to unfreeze the hangar security cameras," Devyn informed them. "This place is about to get really busy."

Buck nodded and then patted Wilma on the shoulder. "Should be enough time. Are you ready to catch an assassin?"

She gave Buck a hesitant sideways 'thumb's up' and grinned. "Let's do it."

Buck smiled broadly as he moved Wilma's hand into the proper position for a thumb's up sign. "Give me your keycard and your las-pistol."

Wilma unstrapped her gun and handed it to Buck who then strapped it to his thigh. She then took her keycard out of her back pocket and handed it over. "Good luck," she said.

He smiled. "No problem." He then motioned for her to leave the office first. Just as Buck reached the door, Devyn called out.

"That's three you owe me now!"

"Buck grinned as he looked over his shoulder. "Next time I need to work on my thrusters, you'll be the first person I call."

Wilma stopped and turned around to glare at him. Buck shrugged both shoulders innocently.

"What?" he asked. "She really is a good mechanic."

Wilma sighed heavily and shook her head. "I think I liked you better when you were in a bad mood," she muttered.

Buck shrugged his shoulders again. "What? Was it something I said?"

Once more Wilma sighed and shook her head. "Let's go catch an assassin."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Wilma raced across the hangar to Major Danton's starfighter and quickly crawled inside. She expertly brought it to life and maneuvered the ship into the auxiliary launch tube. Within seconds she was flying through the darkness overtop the desert that used to be Lake Michigan.

Meanwhile Buck quickly across the hangar toward the secure area set aside for diplomats and dignitaries. When he reached the door barring passage into the long corridor, he used Wilma's keycard and typed in her pass number. The door opened and he nearly sprinted down the corridor until he reached the bay number Devyn had told him. Once more he used the keycard to open the door. He stepped inside the small private hangar bay and carefully approached the medium-sized shuttle.

"Okay," he mumbled to himself. "Let's see if our shuttles really are similar to theirs. "

He got down on his hands and knees and crawled underneath the shuttle. He found the air-lock ring and the numbered keypad beside it. He took a deep breath and said a little prayer.

"I hope this works."

He typed in the universal code for the Terran shuttles. For what seemed an eternity, nothing happened. Buck realized finally that he'd been holding his breath. After what seemed like forever, but in reality was only about fifteen seconds, the air-lock hatch began to spiral inwards and separate from the exterior of the ship. Buck cautiously crawled inside the hatch and then ordered the air-lock to reseal. He found himself inside a tiny, three foot square air-lock chamber. He rose far enough so he could just barely look out the plastiglass window overlooking the interior of the shuttle. To the left of the interior was the main door, which he hoped would soon be opening.

Sure enough within five minutes, the exterior hatch opened and a small, thin man entered and immediately moved to the front of the ship. He quickly brought the ship's engines to life. Buck assumed that the pilot was in radio contact with Devyn in the Flight Controller's office, but he couldn't confirm it since the air-lock was sound proof. But soon afterwards, the ship lurched forward slightly and then moved smoothly onto a large conveyor belt. Buck sat down on the floor of the air-lock and waited patiently. When he felt the jerk of another conveyor belt, he brought his legs up to brace against the walls just as the shuttle entered the launch tube.

The shuttle accelerated through the tube and into the cool desert air outside the dome. About a minute later, Buck could feel the familiar ascension portion of the trip outside the shield. When the shuttle finally leveled off, Buck returned to his crouching position to glance through the window. His hand reached for the door handle and turned the handle as slowly as he could. Finally the door gave an almost silent 'whoosh' and opened a crack. Buck could feel the rush of purified air flowing into the air-lock. Carefully he continued to look out the window with the door barely cracked. Now he could hear the rhythmic sounds of the cockpit controls. Instinctively his hand reached for the pistol strapped to his thigh. He pulled it out and waited.

After a few minutes the pilot tapped a button on his console and grasped his com-link. "Agent 356 to Black Crow One."

He waited for a moment before repeating his call. He repeated the call about eight times before he finally got a response. "Black Crow One."

"Agent 356 reporting from New Chicago. The Earth agents have been eliminated. Situation is secure."

"You're late."

"Yes, I know. They were rather elusive targets."

"Yes, I figured they would be. After all, they are Earth's two best agents."

"Not anymore."

"Very good, 356. Return to your duties in New Chicago. Does Ambassador Parso suspect anything?"

"Not a thing."

"Excellent. Return to your duties."

"Yes, Sir."

The radio went silent. Buck slowly opened the door wider. Stealthily he moved through the cabin of the shuttle. He raised his pistol and shot the back of the copilot's chair. The man whirled around suddenly.

"What? Who?" He looked up at Buck in amazement. "How are you alive?"  
>Buck waved the pistol inches from the man's face. "Get up," he ordered gruffly.<p>

Obediently the man slowly rose to his feet. Buck moved the pistol to his left hand and then swiftly punched the man as hard as he could in the nose. The man fell back into the pilot's seat with such force that he banged his head off the bulkhead of the shuttle. He moved his hand to his nose and pulled it away to see a stream of blood.

"That was for Twiki," Buck said through clenched teeth. "Now I've got a few questions for you."

"I can't tell you anything," he said.

Buck smirked sadistically. "That's where you're wrong. You can and you will."

"No, I can't. They'll kill me if I talk."

"Right now I'm the only one you need to worry about." Buck caught some motion out of the corner of his eye. He looked out the front view screen to see Wilma's starfighter. The nose of her fighter was aimed directly toward the view screen. "Actually you have two of us you need to worry about. Me and her."

"But you don't understand."

"Oh, I understand. You tried to kill us three times. What's stopping me from doing the same to you? And trust me; I know how to kill someone and make it hurt."

The man took a hesitant deep breath. At last he shook his head. "I can't."

Buck grasped him by the collar and lifted him to his feet. He then brought his left leg up and crushed the man's right knee with a kick. In the same motion, he punched him again, sending the man falling back into the chair. Pain coursed through his body, tears welled in his eyes from the pain in his knee.

"Please..."

"Who sent you to kill us?" Buck asked.

The man's head slumped forward in a half nod. "Okay. All the information you need is right here," he said, pointing to the console before him. "I can download the ship's memory onto a flash drive."

"NOPE," Buck said harshly. "Tell me first."

The man reached his right hand for the breast pocket of his flight jacket. Buck waved the gun menacingly. The man pulled out a handkerchief. Buck nodded as the man put the handkerchief to his nose. Suddenly he heard a slight crack coming from the man's mouth. His left hand depressed the red button on the console just as his body went limp and he slumped in the seat. Buck dropped the gun and quickly examined the man's mouth. He swore vehemently.

"Cyanide," he muttered. "Or something similar."

He glanced at the console to see a countdown timer on the monitor. Again he swore as his head drooped. He picked up the com-link.

"He's dead. Suicide. And he's activated the self destruct!"

"Get out of there!" Wilma ordered.

Buck nodded. "You too. I'll try to find a space suit. Don't go too far!"

"How much time do we have?"

Buck glanced at the console. "Ten minutes."

"Then hurry up!"

Buck slapped the man's head one last time before he started tearing the cockpit and cabin apart looking for a space suit. It took a few minutes before he found a hidden compartment behind the pilot's seat. With Wilma urging him to hurry up, he threw the space suit as quickly as he could. He happened to glance at the pilot's console one last time. His eyes bulged at the sight. He picked up the com-link again.

"Bogeys at six o:clock!"

"What?"

"Enemy fighters behind you! Looks like four of them!"

Wilma glanced at her radar. "I see them. I'll take care of them. You get out of that shuttle! I'll come back for you when we're clear."

Wilma broke formation and took off after the oncoming fighters. Buck finished donning the space suit and hurried to the air-lock. He quickly performed the procedure and exited into the blackness of space. He kicked himself away from the ship as hard as he could, trying to get as far away from the shuttle as he could. He soon lost sight of Wilma and the oncoming fighters as they sped away from the doomed shuttle.

"This is Colonel Deering to unidentified space craft. You have encroached upon Earth territorial space. You have ten seconds to identify yourself and your motives before I open fire."

The four fighters broke formation, with the one in the middle beginning to fire. Wilma gripped her controls a little harder and banked her fighter away from the fighter. "I guess that's my answer."

She tapped a button on the console to jam any communications attempts from the fighters. She then banked the ship into a barrel roll and quickly shot down the first of the enemy fighters that crossed her path. She pulled back on the control stick and flew above the burning wreckage, just as a blue path of laser fire missed her and shot the already burning debris. A complete 360 flip brought her directly behind the fighter that had just attempted to shoot her down. She tapped the red fire button repeatedly until it exploded into a massive fireball. She then pulled up on the control stick again ever so briefly, then quickly pushed it down and to the left. The fighter started to fly above the wreckage, then rapidly dove underneath and cut to the left.

All of a sudden she saw a fighter right in front of her. Instinctively without hesitation she fired her lasers before the other pilot could. It exploded barely twenty feet in front of her. The flash was so bright it temporarily blinded her. In a panic, she began to do random maneuvers. She knew there was one fighter left, but she couldn't see it or anything. Silently she wished Buck were here to help. Her ship rocked slightly from side to side. Even though she was blind, she still knew where the controls of the cockpit were. She fired the reverse thrusters, then pressed the firing button. She continued to press the firing button as she panned the fighter in an arc. 'If this doesn't work," she muttered to no one but herself. She was too afraid to finish her statement.  
>******<p>

Something was definitely wrong. Buck checked his watch and furrowed his brows. He'd only been floating in space for five minutes but something was definitely wrong with his suit. He glanced at the readout mini-monitor on his right arm. He checked it again. He checked it again. Finally he sighed and shook his head.

'Who stores a space suit with only ten minutes of air in it?' he wondered aloud.

He continued to float effortlessly through space. The shuttle had long since disappeared into the blackness of space. Thank goodness the pilot had not stopped the engines before activating the self destruct. By the time the shuttle exploded, it was so far away that the only thing Buck saw was a slight spark against the black sky. Soon afterwards, however, the lack of oxygen began to play tricks on his mind. Lights, images, and then darkness. Nothing but darkness.  
>*****<p>

Wilma's vision finally came back to her as she sat motionless in the cockpit. It had been several minutes since she'd destroyed the fourth enemy fighter. Her ploy had worked. By the time the fourth fighter realized what was happening, it had been too late. Now Wilma's vision had returned, but she couldn't find Buck on any of her monitors.

"Buck!" she called into her radio. "Buck, where are you?"

She had found where the shuttle had self destructed and then she had backtracked the trajectory it had used to get there, but she couldn't find Buck anywhere along or near the path. Fear and panic began to rise into her soul.

"Buck!" she called again, desperately. "Buck, where are you?"  
>*****<p>

The shuttle slowed to match the movement of the slowly rotating body. The pilot cordoned off the cockpit and opened the cabin door. The shuttle inched closer and closer to the rotating body. The pilot fired the thrusters carefully and in such a calculating and precise manner that Buck Rogers himself would have been hard-pressed to match. When the shuttle had exactly matched the movement of the unconscious body, it slowly moved closer to the body until the shuttle began to envelope the body. Once the unconscious man was safely inside the shuttle, the pilot closed the hatch and slowly adjusted the artificial gravity to allow the man's body to gently come to rest against the floor. While the cabin returned to proper atmospheric pressure and balance, the shuttle eased out of its rotational movement and evened into a straight line of flight. When the cabin returned to normal, the pilot released the electromagnetic barrier between the cabin and the cockpit. She put the shuttle into automatic pilot and then quickly removed her helmet and unstrapped herself from the pilot's seat. She rushed into the cabin and dropped beside Buck's motionless body. She gently, but firmly removed the Captain's space helmet. He wasn't breathing. She bit her bottom lip and tried to remember what he had taught her.

She pressed her lips against his and began to blow into his mouth. She continued to give him CPR for several minutes until he finally began to sputter and then breathe on his own. He looked up into a pair of beautiful crystal clear blue eyes. His eyes dropped slightly and noticed the broad smile of the beautiful woman. He grinned weakly himself.

"You remembered," he whispered weakly.

Devyn began to giggle. "That's four you owe me," she said as their lips met again, this time for an entirely different reason.

Buck closed his eyes and thought to himself, 'But who's counting?'

_author's note: thank you for all the positive reviews and comments. I just want to respond to Darren's comment quickly: I can't wait to see what I have up my sleeve either. To tell you all the truth, I have no clue where this story is going! I'm posting as I go along! I don't even know what's coming next!_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Wilma set the controls of her sensors to look for any signs of heat. She knew it wouldn't work because the space suit wouldn't emanate any heat, but she'd grown desperate to do and try anything she could possibly do to find Buck. She hated having to leave the shuttle before he could eject, but the presence of the unknown fighters had altered her plans to rescue Buck. Now she sat motionless in her starfighter cockpit. Her options and alternatives were rapidly running low. She flew back to the debris field from the self-destructed shuttle. She input the coordinates into her navigational computer and then the shuttle's former trajectory and speed. The display that came up on the monitor made her frown. She'd already flown that path twice and found nothing both times. She almost cursed.

Fear began to overwhelm her entire body. Questions began to flood her emotions. What if Buck hadn't made it out of the shuttle? What if he couldn't find a space suit? What if he did find a space suit and it didn't fit? Or maybe it had a hole? What if it had no oxygen left in the suit? What if he couldn't get out of the air lock? What if he had been too close to the shuttle when it had self destructed?

She shook her head so violently that her helmet almost dislodged. 'No,' she thought loudly. She willed herself to stop thinking negative thoughts, at least until it was proven one way or another what had happened to Buck. She activated her com-link again.

"Buck!" she cried. "Buck answer me!" It was almost an order. "Buck, where are you? Buck!"

She listened intently for any sign of reply, but the only response to reach her ears was the deafening sound of silence.

"Buck!" she cried again, more desperately than she had intended. "Buck, please answer me! Where are you?"

She lowered her head and closed her eyes, just as a tear began to form. As soon as it started to track down her cheek, she quickly wiped it away with her sleeve. After a long moment's pause and several wipes of her cheek, she opened her eyes again and glanced down at her monitor.

"Wait a minute," she mumbled to no one. "That's not right." She double checked the projected path of the shuttle. "This trajectory misses the shield corridor." She sat back in pensive thought. "But how? What does it mean? Unless..."

She sat bolt upright in the cockpit and snapped her fingers. "Of course! Buck must have kicked off when he left the airlock! It would have changed the course slightly!" She quickly checked the display. The path of the shuttle was off by eighteen inches! Not much in cosmic standards, but far enough that the shuttle would have completely missed the shield corridor. Quickly she input the new information into the navigational computer. The trajectory display changed slightly! She quickly fired the engines and sped along the new course. She set the sensors to their greatest range and sensitivity. She searched the new area extensively for nearly ten minutes, but still could find no sign of Buck. Once again fear and despair began to creep into the depths of her soul. What would she do if she couldn't find Buck? She hadn't known him that long, but long enough for her to fall deeply in love with him! She didn't want to contemplate her life without him! Even if he was known as a lady's man, just having him in her life as a friend was much better than not having him in her life at all. Of course she would like to be more than a friend. But every time they started to get close, something would always come up, or she would find some excuse to back off. She wanted to become closer to Buck, but she also feared what would happen if they became too close.

She closed her eyes again, more out of necessity than anything. The tears had become so abundant that she couldn't see. Every time she wiped them away, another batch appeared even stronger than the previous. Finally she changed the radio frequency.

"Colonel Deering to New Chicago Flight Control."

"This is New Chicago Flight Control," a male voice answered almost immediately. "Go ahead, Colonel."

Wilma wiped her eyes again, frowned slightly. She had expected to hear Devyn's voice. When she got over the initial shock of a male voice, she shook her head once. "Who is this?"

"This is Sullivan. Shawn Sullivan. What's wrong, Colonel?"

"Sorry, Sullivan. I was expecting to hear Devyn."

"She got off a little while ago. I could hail her if you want to talk to her."

"No, that's alright. Have you heard from Captain Rogers?"

"No, Ma'am, I have not."

Wilma swore silently. One of the little bad habits she had picked up from Buck. "Sullivan, are your sensors picking up anything else in this general vicinity?"

"Like what?"

"I'm looking for Captain Rogers. He ejected from a shuttle before it exploded, but I can't find him. Is he showing up on your sensors at all?"

"No, Colonel. I'm sorry, but I'm not getting anything on him at all."

Wilma threw her head back into the deepest recesses of her flight chair. In frustration she let her head drop back as her gaze fell onto the ceiling of the cockpit. Suddenly her eyes narrowed and she snapped back into an upright position.

"Wait a minute. Sullivan, you said that you could _hail_ Devyn?"

"Yes."

"What do you mean you can hail her? Isn't she there?"

"No, Colonel. As soon as I got here to relieve her, she grabbed a shuttle and took off. Said something about somebody owing her a favor."

"She took a shuttle?"

"Yes. She requested clearance for Shuttle one five eight three."

Wilma's mind began to race. "Yes, hail her for me. No, as a matter of fact give me her call numbers and frequency. I'll hail her."

"I can do better than that. I'll hail her and then give you a direct patch."

"Fine. But make it quick."

"It's ready," he said almost instantly.

Wilma cocked her head, then nodded once. "Oh, okay. Thanks Sullivan. Colonel Deering to Lt. Devyn Thurston, Earth shuttle one five eight three; Colonel Deering to Lt. Devyn Thurston, Earth shuttle one five eight three; come in please. Colonel Deering to Lt. Devyn Thurston, Earth shuttle one five eight three; Colonel Deering to Lt. Devyn Thurston, Earth shuttle one five eight three; come in please..."

# # # # # # #

Faintly another voice drifted into the fog that was Buck's brain. However, cognizance was slow to come. Finally after about five repeats, he recognized the voice and the urgency. He opened his eyes to find himself lying on the floor of a shuttle. Slowly he raised his hand to his mouth and removed the oxygen mask covering his face. He looked around the cabin until his eyes focused on a woman working on the life support monitors at the back of the cabin.

"Devyn," he whispered as loudly as he could.

She turned and smiled at Buck. She stepped up to him and kneeled down. "You have to keep this on for awhile," she urged, trying to replace the oxygen mask.

Buck weakly resisted. "Hail," he managed to say before she could get the mask back on.

"Huh?"

She allowed him to remove the mask. "We're being hailed," he whispered weakly. "Wilma is hailing us."

"Huh?" Devyn cocked her head to one side to listen. Finally she heard what Buck was talking about. She replaced the mask and rushed to the cockpit of the shuttle.

"Lt. Thurston here; what can I do for you, Colonel."  
>"What's your location?"<p>

"Just passing the stargate," she replied after checking her coordinates.

"I'm looking for Buck! He was in a shuttle that self destructed and now I can't find him! Can you assist me? "

Devyn smiled as she looked back to see Buck lying on the floor of the cabin behind her. "That won't be necessary, Colonel."

"Why not?"

"I already have him!"

A smile crossed Wilma's lips as she released a huge sigh of relief. "Is he okay?"

"His space suit had run out of air, but he'll be okay. He's a little groggy. I was just hooking him up to the internal life support."

"Thank you, Devyn. What's your ETA back to New Chicago?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"Sounds good. I'll see you down there. I'll have a medical team standing by."

Wilma deactivated the com-link and breathed another sigh of relief. She leaned back in her seat. Buck was alive! She thought back to one of the stories he had told her awhile ago. She couldn't remember all the details, but it was something about an animal called a cat having nine lives?

'You've done it again, Buck,' she thought to herself and grinned, shaking her head. 'If a cat has nine lives, how many do you have? And how many have you already used?'

Silently she set course for the shield corridor.

_author's note: this chapter is dedicated to Innana! Hopefully this shows some of the desperation Wilma had in the search for Buck._ _If anyone has any ideas on where I can go with this story, or you just want me to elaborate on something, I am more than willing to listen!_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The door to the infirmary opened and Doctor Huer rushed in. He quickly scanned the interior until he found the person he was looking for. He stepped up to Buck's bed and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Wilma looked up from her stool.

"Oh thank heavens you're alright," he said excitedly. "Both of you! When I heard that you were both missing and presumed dead..., well I wasn't... I truly believe that you enjoy giving me scares like that!"

Buck shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, Doc. We really did want to tell you what we were planning, but it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. We wanted to contact you, but couldn't be sure we could do so safely without being monitored."

"I understand," Huer said, sighing again. "You are all right?"

Buck nodded. "Yeah. I'm just fine."

"Then why are you lying here in the infirmary?"

Buck shot a wicked glance out the corner of his eye toward Wilma. He then turned his head to do the same to Doctor Estes who had just entered the room. "It was NOT my idea to come here," he said emphatically.

"Because," Doctor Estes started as she picked up a chart at the foot of his bed. "You were suffering from oxygen deprivation. Colonel Deering made a decision to bring you here and I fully support her decision."

"Oxygen deprivation?" Huer questioned.

Wilma waved her hand nonchalantly. "I'm working on the report right now," she nodded, indicating the small tablet in her lap. "I'll have it on your desk before lunch."

"I see. Did you happen to find anything out?"  
>Buck shook his head. "No. We thought it might have been the Gaussian ambassador, but apparently he had no knowledge of anything. We did catch the assassin trying to kill us, though."<p>

"Excellent! Where is he?"

Buck closed his eyes and leaned back on the bed. "Dead."

"You didn't..." Huer asked hesitantly.

Buck shook his head. "No; he blew himself up."

"And almost took Buck with him," Wilma added.

"I see. You didn't get any information out of him?"

"The only thing I got was a code name. Black Crow."

"Black Crow? What does that mean?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe Vaahn will be able to shed some light."

"So you're still planning on going to see this Vaahn fellow?"

"At this point, he's the only one who may know what's going on," Wilma said.

Huer nodded. "I still don't like the idea of sending the two of you into a situation which we know nothing about. But," he added as he saw Buck begin to open his mouth. "I understand your reasoning. So when are you going to leave?"

Once more Buck glared at Dr. Estes. "As soon as the good Doc, here, says I can leave this infirmary."

She smiled sweetly at Buck's mean looking face. "Just give me an hour, Captain. I should have all my test results back by then."

Wilma glanced up again. "Oh, there is one piece of good news," she said cheerfully. "The maintenance department managed to find the bombs that were placed in our starfighters."

"Bombs?" Huer asked.

Wilma grinned slightly, tapped her notebook. "It's all in the report."

Huer nodded absently. "Yes, of course." He looked at his watch. "Oh, good heavens. I'd better get to my office. I have a delegation from the mining world of Cookson's planet coming in this morning. Keep me informed, Colonel, of everything."

"We will."

Doctor patted Buck on the shoulder, then quickly headed for the door. Buck looked up at Dr. Estes. "As long as I'm stuck here for awhile, can I go see Twiki?"

"Are you sure you want to?" she wondered aloud. "His condition hasn't changed since the last time you saw him."

Buck nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'd like to see him one more time before we leave for Trixtania."

Estes thought for a brief moment before agreeing. She led him to the small room on the other side of her office area. The room looked exactly as it had the day before. Twiki lay on the small steel table with Dr. Theopolis at the head of the table. Hundreds of cables connected Twiki with both Theopolis and the mainframe computer behind him on the wall. The room was dim and borderline frigid.

"He looks so peaceful," Wilma said softly.

Buck took a deep breath and sighed. He turned to Estes and Wilma. "Can I be alone with him for a couple minutes?"

Both women nodded almost immediately. They turned and left the room. The door closed silently behind them. Buck turned toward Dr. Theopolis.

"Theo, can you do me a favor?"

"Certainly, Captain Rogers," replied the computerized voice. "What can I do for you?"

"I know you can't leave the room, but could you go to sleep, or deactivate your auditory circuits, or whatever, so I can talk to Twiki privately for a couple minutes?"

"This is highly irregular, Captain, but I can accommodate your request."

"Thanks, Theo. Oh, hey, how's Twiki coming along?"

Buck waited a moment for a response, but none was forthcoming. Buck asked Theo another question, but received no reply. Buck grinned slightly. 'Wow, when he shuts himself off, he really does it quick!' he thought.

Buck pulled up a short stool and sat down at the edge of the table. He placed a hand on top of Twiki's. He closed his eyes for a long minute, trying to think of exactly what he wanted to say. At last he sighed deeply and opened his eyes. He stared into Twiki's unresponsive eyes.

"Hey, Twiki," he started slowly. "I know they say that you can't hear me, Little Buddy, but that really doesn't matter right now. I just want someone to talk to. Who knows, maybe you can hear me. I've heard stories of how people were in a coma and they had relatives or friends talking to them, and when they recovered from the coma, they could remember the conversation. Well, maybe this will be one of those cases. Or not. Anyway, I just wanted to say a few things before I left.

"I just wanted to say thanks for saving my life, Little Buddy. I don't know how you did it; the techs don't know how you did it; no one does. All the damage you took and you still managed to pull me out of the apartment? I, uh, I really appreciate it. I owe you my life.

"Remember when you were floating in space after being ejected from the starfighter? Well, I know what you were going through, now! That happened to me this morning. You remember Devyn, don't you? That hot blonde mechanic who doubles as the third shift Flight Controller? She saved my life. I guess I should get her a present, or something." Buck closed his eyes and cocked his head slightly. "I guess you both saved my life, huh? Twice in two days someone had to save my life. I wonder if I'm worth it," he muttered almost inaudibly. He stared into space for a moment before remembering where he was.

"Huh? Where was I? Oh, right. Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you that we caught the SOB who tried to kill me and Wilma; the one who did this to you. Oh, you don't know about Wilma yet! Yeah, someone tried to blow her up too, like they did to you. But we caught him! I wasn't able to get any good information on him, but I did manage to break his nose and his kneecap! That is until he committed suicide and almost blew me up when he self destructed the ship.

"But that's not the only thing I wanted to say. I wanted to apologize to you, Twiki. I'm the reason you got hit yesterday in the first place. It had nothing to do with a terrorist plot against the city, or because I'm an Earth agent, or anything like that. This one was more personal. I probably should have told you earlier what happened to me, but..., I don't know, maybe I was living in denial.., or I didn't want to admit to myself my role in the ..." Buck took a deep breath and slowly released it bit by bit. "I got a story to tell you. You know the one about how the holocaust started? Well, it's all a lie. I started it. Well, actually Wilma and I started it. You don't believe me, do you?"

Buck paused for a moment. "Tell you the truth, I don't really believe it. I don't know how it happened. But you remember that test flight last month, the one that I wrecked? During the actual experimentation, Wilma and I were transported back to 1987." He paused again, took several deep breaths, exhaling through his nose loudly. "I tried to stop the holocaust," he said hollowly. "I swear I was trying to stop it! But I couldn't." Buck took another deep breath. "I couldn't stop the holocaust. In fact, I ended up starting it... but it was the only way to save Earth from becoming extinct! If I hadn't started it... Gauss would have destroyed everything! I... I tried to stop it!"

Buck laid his head on the table, inches from Twiki's hand. "I never told you. I started the holocaust! How am I supposed to live with that? Six billion people... And now apparently someone high up in Gaussian politics found out about our involvement and they're determined not to let Wilma and I live long enough to tell anyone that we were involved, like I would anyway! I don't want anyone to know that I started the holocaust that killed six billion people! If this whole thing gets carried away, and the council finds out that Gauss was the real reason behind the holocaust, we could have interstellar war on our hands! And it'd be all my fault."

Buck closed his eyes. "Anyway, Wilma and I are supposed to go to Trixtania to meet this guy Vaahn who supposedly has some information that we just have to see. All this crap started because I tried to stop the holocaust!"

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Twiki. It's all my fault you're here. But I'll promise you one thing: I'm gonna get whoever ordered this hit! Even if I have to kill the Gaussian Prime Minister himself, I'll find out who put you here. Gauss ruined Earth once. I'll be damned if they get a second chance to finish the job."

The room lapsed into a long silence. The only sound in the room was the rush of cold air emanating from the air conditioner. Finally Buck sighed and stood up. "I'll be back, Little Buddy. You hang in there."

He turned toward the door.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: go get 'em, Buck!"

Buck whirled around to stare at the table. Everything remained motionless. He rushed back to the table and grabbed the droid's hand. "What? What'd you say? Twiki! Can you hear me?" He looked at Theo. "Theo, did you hear that? Did you hear that?"

The tiny computer did not answer. Buck ran his hand up and down in front of Theo's sensors several times.

"Are you completed, Captain Rogers?" Theo asked.

"Did you hear that?" Buck asked.

"Hear what?"

"Twiki! Twiki talked to me! He told me to go get 'em!"

"Go get who?"

"The people who did this to him!"

"I'm sorry, Captain Rogers, but that would be quite impossible for Twiki to have answered you. All his sensors have been disconnected. He can not hear, or communicate in any way."

"But I heard him!" Buck insisted.

"I'm sorry, Captain. It is physically impossible for Twiki to communicate in any way. He's simply not able."

"But..." Buck shrugged. "Maybe it was just my imagination."

"Are you okay, Captain?"

Buck sighed heavily. "Yeah, I'm just under a lot of stress lately. Thanks, Theo. Do whatever you can for Twiki."

Buck took one last, long look at the silver droid lying motionless on the table. Finally he turned and left the room. Maybe he _had_ imagined it. Stranger things have happened. Just before he reached the door, he turned once more.

"Do what you can for him, Theo."

"I will, Captain Rogers. Do not worry about Twiki. Will you be okay, Buck?"

Buck nodded. "Yeah. I got work to do… and a promise to keep."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Buck and Wilma stepped into the lobby of the large hotel and slowly walked up to the counter. When the woman behind the counter looked up, she smiled and greeted them.

"Welcome to Hotel Aurora," she said sweetly. "Can I help you?"

Buck and Wilma returned her smile. "Yes," he answered. "We have reservations for Mr. and Mrs. Carey."

The woman looked down at her computer monitor and tapped a few keys. After a brief moment, she smiled and looked up again. "Ah, yes. We have you here. If you have your identicard handy, I'll swipe it and get you on your way."

Wilma handed her a card. The woman took it, swiped it through her computer to authorize it, then handed it back. "You will be in Room # 5788." She glanced down at the monitor again. "Oh, it looks like you have a package."

"A package?" Buck asked suspiciously, taking a small step backwards.

She bent down underneath the counter for a second before coming back up with an envelope in her hand. She handed the envelope to Buck who visibly breathed a sigh of relief. She smiled again and waved her hand toward the right of the counter.

"The service droid will take your bags and show you to your room. The elevators are over there."

Wilma nudged up against Buck as they followed the droid through the lobby. "What's in the package?" she asked softly.

Buck simply shrugged. "Dunno. We'll find out once we get to the room, I guess."

They followed the droid to the elevator. It led them to the fifth floor and then down a maze of corridors to their room. Once inside, the droid carefully placed the bags on the floor and then left the room silently.

"One nice thing about droids," Buck commented with a grin. "You don't have to tip them!"

Buck moved to the edge of the bed and sat down. Cautiously he inspected the outside of the envelope. It appeared to be a normal envelope with the name, "Mr. Carey" written in red. Slowly he broke the seal and looked inside to find another envelope. Written on the outside of the second envelope was a short message.

"Do not speak. It is possible the room is being monitored. If this envelope shows any form of tampering, leave immediately. You've been made. Otherwise please open."

Wilma stepped up to the bed and began to say something, but Buck held up his hand to stop her. He held up the envelope and the message written on it. She nodded and silently sat down beside him. He opened the second envelope. Inside was a letter.

"At 1800 hours local time, leave the hotel and take a taxi to the town's south gates. There is a business there called Finegan's that rents hovercraft. Rent a hovercraft and travel into the desert to the following coordinates. I will be waiting for you there."

When they were both finished reading the letter, Buck put the letter back into its envelope and stuffed it inside his flight jacket. He checked his watch and tapped it. "One hour," he mouthed. He lay back in the bed and turned on the news vids.

"There's only one problem with this," he grinned.

Wilma looked at him curiously. "What's that?"

Buck's grin slowly grew. "There's no Headbanger's Ball to listen to."

Wilma returned the smirk. "I don't think the galaxy is ready for that kind of music."

Buck simply nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. Nothing in the universe could prepare people nowadays for Ozzy Osbourne."

When the hour passed, Buck and Wilma left the hotel and stepped onto the busy street of Trixtania's capital city. Wilma flagged down a cab. When it floated gently to a stop, they climbed into the back seat. The driver looked into his mirror.

"Where can I take you?"

"Finegan's Hovercraft Rental," Buck replied.

"Which one?"

Buck turned to Wilma unsurely. Wilma smiled and looked at the driver. "The one at the south gates," she said.

The driver nodded once. When the door closed, the car gently rose into the air and eased into traffic. Buck and Wilma intently looked around them at the sights of the modern city. It only took about fifteen minutes to reach the south gates from the hotel. The car settled onto the ground to allow Buck and Wilma to exit. Wilma handed the driver her identicard and he swiped it into his slot, then handed it back to her. They watched the car climb back into the air. Buck then looked around them. About fifty yards south of their position was a high metallic wall. Just to the left of the pair of large gates was a long parking lot that contained dozens of hovercraft of varying sizes and designs. The sign above the parking lot simply read, "Finegan's."

"I guess we're here," Buck muttered as he headed slowly across the sand-strewn sidewalk.

They walked across the parking lot and into the small air-conditioned office. The heavy set man behind the counter didn't look up. They stood there for several minutes before Buck finally got impatient and loudly cleared his throat. At last the man looked up with a scowl on his face.

"What?" he asked gruffly.

"We'd like to rent a hovercraft," Buck stated matter-of-factly.

The large man looked back down at the monitor he had been intently reading. "It's getting late."

"So?"

"It gets cold out there at night."

"We don't intend to be out that late."

"Some of the monsters out there get pretty vicious. That's why we have such a high wall. They used to get into town and tear stuff up."

"We can take care of ourselves," Wilma said.

The hefty man glanced up again. "Yeah, I bet you could. I got something you could take care of," he mumbled with a gleam in his eye.

Buck slapped the counter loudly with the palm of his hand. "That's my wife you're talking to," he bellowed.

The man smirked. "So?"

"So are you going to rent us a hovercraft or not?"

He sat up and placed his elbows on the counter. "You ever drive one of these before?"

"Yeah, I have."

"Fine," he finally sighed as he looked down to type the information into his console. "It'll cost you a thousand credits an hour."

"That's highway robbery," Buck growled.

"You want to rent a hovercraft or not?" he smirked.

Buck reached slowly into his flight jacket and pulled his pistol out of its holster. Gently he set it down on the counter, barrel pointed toward the man's large head. The salesman started to say something smug until he got a closer look at the pistol. His eyes widened.

"That's a Draconian pistol," he commented nervously.

Buck grinned out of one corner of his mouth. "So it is."

Wilma removed her pistol and placed it on the counter beside Buck's. The large man looked at her just as nervously.

"Being in the Draconian Secret Service has its advantages," she commented.

He started furiously typing at his station. In a moment he set a contract and a key atop the counter. "Two hundred credits?"

Buck accepted the contract and signed under the name of Carey. He pushed the contract back across the counter and laid some credit chips beside it. "Sounds better."

The man took the contract and chips and put them away. "You can take any of the hovercraft you want. The same key works for all of them."

"Let me ask you," Buck started. "Do you always jack the price up five hundred percent? Or is that just for people you think are suckers?"

"I'm just trying to make money."

"Are you Finegan?"

He shook his head. "No. Mr. Finegan works in the corporate office downtown."

"What would Mr. Finegan say if he found out you're scamming his customers and undervaluing his bottom line, because I'm sure you're not claiming all of your income on the company vouchers."

"You're not going to report me, are you?"

Buck grabbed the key off the table. "I'm just here on vacation with my wife. I just advise you to be more careful in the future who you try to scam. Otherwise, some morning you may wake up dead."

Buck and Wilma left the office and walked to one of the smaller hovercraft. Wilma stopped before climbing into the craft. "How is he going to wake up if he's dead?" she wondered aloud.

Buck simply grinned. "It's just a saying. Let's go find this Vaahn fellow before it gets dark."

Buck took the controls and eased the hovercraft through the gates. He input the coordinates that Vaahn had given him into the onboard navigational computer. In a moment the monitor displayed the readout.

"Looks like it's about fifty miles south-west of here."

Wilma checked the speed of the hovercraft. "We should be there in about an hour."

Buck nodded. "Keep an eye out for vicious creatures," he said with a slight smirk.

She tapped her pistol. "I'll be ready for them!"

When they reached the place, the hovercraft stopped and settled slowly to the ground. In the distance, the sun had almost completed its disappearance into the horizon, streaking the sky with reds, oranges, and pinks. It almost looked as if the reddish sands of the desert were being reflected upon the sky. Buck looked around him intently for any signs of civilization. They were truly in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but flat ground and desert sand for as far as the eye could see. They sat in silence for several moments watching what was left of the sunset. Within minutes, it grew dark. Wilma shivered ever so slightly as the temperature rapidly dropped.

"He was right," she said. "It gets cold out here quick."

Buck removed his flight jacket and wrapped it around her. She started to protest, but another shiver made her think otherwise. Instead she leaned up against him until she could feel his body heat. She basked in the warmth for the longest moment before she broke the silent, night air.

"You know you had me scared to death yesterday."

He turned his head slightly to look down at her. "When?"

"When I couldn't find you after you'd jumped out of the Gaussian shuttle."

He simply nodded. "Sorry."

She perked her head up and smiled. "No, it's not your fault. I was just... scared. Scared I might never see you again."

Buck started to say something, but when he noticed the serious look on her face, he refrained. He recognized the inner turmoil going on inside her head. She obviously wanted to tell him something, but wasn't sure she had the courage. Instead he simply nodded once. "When I was floating around out there, a lot of things flashed through my head," he said, glancing up at the host of stars in the clear sky.

"Buck," she said hesitantly.

He moved a finger to cross her lips. "You don't have to say anything."

Gently she moved his hand away. "Yes I do. I was scared... for several reasons. I was scared that I would never see you because... I don't know what I would do without you. You've taught me so much about... many things, including what it means to be a woman and not just an officer."

"Wilma..." he tried to interrupt.

"Let me finish," she said softly. "When I found out that you were alive, I felt relieved and upset at the same time."

"Upset?"

"Relieved that you were safe, but upset that Devyn had found you and not me."

"But Devyn is just-"

"I don't care about Devyn," she interrupted. "I care about you, Buck. You mean so much to me that I find it difficult to put into words."

"I care about you too, Wilma. You're one of the best friends I've ever had. "

She hesitated for several moments, then nodded. "I think what I'm trying to say is that I want to be more than just friends. I see you with Devyn, or the girl down at the pizza shop, or the girl at the customs counter at the space port, or Princess Ardala, or..., well you get the idea..."

Buck looked away.

"I just get disappointed, depressed, jealous. I know I have no right to, but I do, and I can't stop myself. I just want..."

Buck turned back and gently put his hand on her cheek. "Wilma, I'm sorry. I never meant to-

She shook her head. "I know you're not ready to settle down," she admitted. "You've said so yourself on many occasions. But when you are ready, just promise me one thing."

"Anything."

A tear slid out of her eye and onto her cheek. She hoped that it was too dark for Buck to notice. "When you're ready... give me a chance," she said softly.

Buck smiled as he leaned forward toward Wilma's face. "You're number one on my list," he grinned.

Just before their lips could meet, they both saw a brilliant flash of light. Then suddenly a metal panel began to rise out of the desert sand, just ten feet away from the hovercraft. The panel continued to rise for a moment before three men appeared. They climbed the stairs and out into the desert night air. Quickly they approached the hovercraft.

"Captain Rogers and Colonel Deering?" one of them asked.

"Yeah," Buck called back.

"Please come with us. We have been waiting for you. Vaahn is looking forward to meeting you."

Buck and Wilma exchanged disappointed glances before leaving the hovercraft and following the men into the opening. As the panel began to close, Wilma swore silently to herself.

_If they had just waited another ten minutes... or an hour..._


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Buck and Wilma were led down a stairwell into what looked like a massive underground bomb shelter. They followed the men through the corridors until they reached a large conference room. In the center of the room sat a large, circular table with several chairs around. They sat down at the table and waited for several minutes before the door opened again. Vaahn stepped into the room with an entourage of six men and slowly stepped up to examine the two Earthlings.

"Well you certainly look like Captain Rogers and Colonel Deering," he said, throwing down a couple pictures in front of Buck and Wilma.

Buck glanced at the pictures sitting on the table; one of himself and one of Wilma. They were dressed in NASA flight suits. "What's this all about?" he snapped.

Vaahn went to the other side of the table and sat down. "A little snippy, aren't you?" he asked, setting aside the small chest he had been carrying.

"I get like that when someone tries to kill me and blows up my best friend. Now why are we here? And where did you get these?" he asked, indicating the photos.

"I could ask the same of you," Vaahn returned cryptically. "These photos were taken aboard the Warship Archea five hundred years ago. They were in this chest of information that has been handed down to me by my father, and his father, and his father..." He stopped to pause for the longest minute as he stared at Buck. "Why you are alive?"

Buck shrugged. "Well my parents met in Houston in 1940; they fell in love, got married, and pretty soon after that I was born."

"That's not what I meant," Vaahn sighed impatiently. "How is it you are in this photograph that was taken five hundred years ago?"

"Good living; a glass of red wine every night; sit-ups, pushups, no fried food..."

Wilma tried hard to suppress a smile. Instead, she set her arms on the table. "We were participants in a scientific experiment. We were accidently sent back in time."

"How is that possible?"  
>Wilma shrugged. "We don't know. We're still trying to figure that out."<p>

Vaahn nodded. "So," he started slowly. "I'm sorry; I'm having a hard time getting my mind around this. You are Captain Buck Rogers and Colonel Wilma Deering. You are the Earth astronauts who assassinated Minister Turon, started the Terran Holocaust, and instigated the Great Gaussian Civil War."

Buck leaned back in the chair. "We like to stay busy."

"The holocaust killed how many people on Earth? Five billion?"

Buck closed his eyes and sighed. "Six, but who's counting?" Buck suddenly perked up and leaned his elbows on the table. "Let me ask you a question. If you had this information on us all this time, why is it you're just now looking us up?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that ever since I was introduced to the 25th century over a year ago, I haven't exactly been what you would call low profile."

"I don't understand what you mean."

"I was at the last Olympics a few months ago. I escorted Miss Universe on an interstellar cruise. I introduced Andromeda to the rest of the galaxy!"

"Who's Andromeda?"

"I've been all over the news vids! I was the five hundred year old _Roshon_ who save a planet from the _Traybor_!"

Vaahn nodded knowingly. "Oh, I see. Well I must admit that I haven't been able to monitor the news vids for the past few years. I've been living in exile for about two years. I haven't seen a newspaper or a vid in two years."

"And why were you exiled?"

Vaahn tapped the top of the box. "There is enough information in this box to make three governments very uncomfortable. And there is a lot of information having to do with the two of you."

"What'chu talking about?" Buck asked.

"I assume you met a man named Vaahn in your time in the twentieth century."

"Yes," Wilma said. "He's the one who orchestrated the assassination of your Minister Turon."

Vaahn shook his head violently and shot a glare in Wilma's direction. "He's not MY minister," he said emphatically. He took a deep breath and relaxed. "But anyway, the Vaahn you met is my ancestor; my great, great, great, great, great, great... grandfather."

"I can see some resemblance," Buck said.

"My name is Vaahn Golana Mirad Sonic Jasta Aaris Marxt."

"Why so many names? Are you going for the Guinness galactic record?"

Vaahn paused for a moment trying to understand the reference. At last, he gave up. "Vaahn is my family name. The last name is my personal name; the one before that is my father's name, then his father's name, then his father's name, then..."

"Yeah, we got the idea," Buck muttered. "But why stop at seven names? Why not go to ten? Or fifteen?"

"Why do you only have three? Do you have name envy?"

"Hey, let's not get personal here."

Vaahn smirked ever so slightly. "You are here for the sole reason that your names are mentioned several times on video logs my great...grandfather made five hundred years ago. They are all archived in this box. I believe that you'll be interested in seeing the oldest one."

"I'd like to see them all."

"Maybe in time." Vaahn reached into the box and took out a tiny disc which he then installed into a slot behind him on the wall. A monitor above the slot almost immediately flashed to life to show the image of a man remarkably similar to the man sitting in front of Buck. The elder Vaahn looked tired, ragged, worn. Obviously he hadn't slept in days. He spoke slowly and succinctly.

"The assassination of Minister Turon has been completed. The Earth woman known as Wilma Deering was successful in administering the poison I gave her. While she was poisoning the Minister, I performed the assassination of Deputy Minister Kentara myself. We are now in position to go forth with our coups to overtake the government and fix what so many of us believe is wrong with our leadership. I regret to report, however, that we were unable to silence Captain Arnogg and gain control of this ship. Captain Arnogg is and will be loyal to Minister Turon to the end, and he has attempted to carry out the minister's plan which is the total annihilation of the indigenous population of the Planet Earth. The Earth man, Captain William Rogers, managed to disable this warship's sensors and tractor beam with the help I provided him in Lt. Aaris. He and his partner Deering escaped the ship with one of our scout ships and returned to Earth, or at least attempted to return to Earth. Before this warship could get into range to release the biological agent specifically made to wipe out Earth's population, Captain Rogers and Colonel Deering acted upon the only alternative they had to save and protect the future people of Earth. I don't know how they did it, but they convinced Captain Arnogg to leave planet Earth forever. However, in the process they set into motion a terrible course of action upon the Earth, upon their own people, upon their own planet. Somehow they managed to use the Terran nuclear arsenal against their own people, which will undoubtedly kill billions of people and will poison the atmosphere and everything on the entire planet. I do not know how it will turn out in the end. I do not know how many people will survive, if any. But if the human population on Planet Earth does survive, then Captain Rogers and Wilma Deering are to be highly commended as planetary heroes; heroes who will save their planet and their people from the brink of total extinction, which is surely what would have happened had they not acted in the way that they did. The planet of Gauss will claim total responsibility for the destruction committed here today under the orders of former Minister Turon. I vow to restore Earth one day to its former glory and beauty.

"However, I fear that we have a long way to be before that will happen. The assassination of Turon will undoubtedly start a planetary, perhaps inter-stellar civil war, if you include our three satellite planets. We have a large number of people who are ready for change, but there are many, many people who are still loyal to Turon and his ideals, as wrong as they may be. I do not know how all of this will play out, but I wish to give the highest commendations to both Captain Rogers and Colonel Deering. They have reshaped the fates of both our planets, hopefully for the better. In the final course of history, the whispers from the past will be echoes throughout time. Let the voices echo the heroic actions of Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering; heroes of their time. And may the fates be kind to Gauss. We will rebuild and restore Earth, and the two planets of Earth and Gauss will become beacons of strength for each other for ages to come."

The screen froze for a moment on Vaahn's face before it faded into blackness. Wilma rested her elbows on the table and folded her hands together.

"I have a question. Is this common knowledge among your people?"

"What part?"

"Let me rephrase that. How much of this is common knowledge?"

Vaahn grimaced. "Since all of this happened five hundred years ago, a lot of it has been forgotten by the general populace. Our schools basically teach history since the revolution to the general students. Some of the advanced scholars will get pre-revolution history, but not the part about starting the holocaust on Earth. Only our political leaders get the whole story, and only after they've been elected. And even then only a certain few, like the chancellor and his cabinet, get to learn everything that happened."

"So you're living in exile because of what's in that box?" Buck asked. "That must be some heavy duty stuff in there."

Vaahn hesitated for the briefest of moments, but Buck noticed. "It is," he replied slowly.

"So what are you planning to do with it?" Buck pressed. "There's something you're not telling us."

Vaahn grinned sarcastically and nodded. "You are very perceptive. Yes, you're right. The real reason why I am exiled is that I plan to use the information in this box to begin a movement among the people and the galaxy of full disclosure. It was my grandfather's dream that Gauss recognize the harm we did to your planet. We have done much to assist your world since the holocaust, such as give you a lot of the technology we have developed, but we never told your leaders why. I intend to 'come clean', as it were, about our involvement in your holocaust."

"And what about us?" Wilma asked.

"What do you mean?"

"She means the part about me and Wilma blowing up the world," Buck stated. "Some things are better left alone. If you want to admit your role, that's fine, but what Wilma's saying is that we want left out of this equation."

"But why? The two of you are the saviors of Planet Earth."

Buck shook his head. "The council may not think so. What do you think they would do to me and Wilma if they found out two of their best agents started the holocaust that killed six billion people?"

"But that happened five hundred years ago."

"Not to us," Buck argued. "What if the council demands reparations from Gauss for their role?"

"That's the whole idea!" Vaahn smiled. "We must begin to pay back Earth for what we did to it!"

"Wait a minute," Wilma interrupted. "If your government has known about Buck and I all this time, why are they just now trying to kill us?"

Vaahn shook his head. "First of all, it's not our government who is trying to kill you. If I were to guess, I would say it all started when you tried to access portions of our history that is still classified top secret. Second of all, all the information we had suggested that Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering lived five hundred years ago. We had no idea that you were still alive."

Buck sat up. "If it's not your government that's trying to kill us, then who is? You said there's enough information in that box to upset three governments. I only know about two; Earth, and Gauss. Who's the third?"

Vaahn smirked, nodded. "That is why I have brought you here. After the revolution, the Vaahn you knew took control of Gauss and became its first Chancellor. At the time we had three satellite planets; Eenie, Mehne, and Miney."

"What happened to Mo?" Buck asked with a straight face.

Vaahn cocked his head to one side and looked at Buck strangely. "There is no Mo," he said seriously.

Buck shook his head and controlled the urge to smile. "Never mind."

Vaahn continued to look at Buck for a moment before continuing. "Since the war was so bloody, the victors of the revolution didn't want to eliminate the losers completely, since enough people had already died. So everyone who was loyal to the original government of Minister Turon was exiled to the planet of Miney. That's probably who's trying to kill you. After all, they're the ones who tried to kill me. That's why I am currently living in exile."

"Why did they try to kill you?" Wilma asked.

Buck snapped his fingers. "Because they don't want to admit that it was their ancestors who tried to kill Earth. If our Council demands reparations, Gauss can direct Earth to Miney to make the payments, since they were the ones loyal to Minster Turon."

Vaahn nodded. "That's why they tried to kill me. And that's why they are trying to kill you."

"I don't get it?" Wilma admitted.

"Because since we were there, we can acknowledge their role in destroying Earth," Buck said.

"Exactly," Vaahn agreed.

"So if you go public with this information, Earth will demand that Miney pay us back for what they did."

"And Miney does not have diplomatic ties with Earth," Wilma added. "In fact, they're right on the border of Draconian space."

Buck sighed. "Everything always comes back to Draconia, doesn't it?"

"Well when you control seventy-five percent of the galaxy..."

"But Draconia has made no move against Miney or even shown any interest in it at all," Vaahn said. "So Draconia really has no bearing on this situation."

"So there's nothing on Miney worth having?"

Vaahn shook his head. "No. In fact, they're barely space worthy."

Buck sighed. "So it all comes down to the hundred thousand dollar question: what do we do about this? Obviously Wilma and I can't endorse your plan for full disclosure. If this gets out and goes to war, Earth would have no problem with Miney, but since it's so close to Draconian space, they may be offended."

"And we don't need any kind of war," Wilma agreed. "Easy or not."

"So we are in agreement that something has to be done?" Vaahn asked. "We can't allow Miney to continue to threaten our lives."

"We could always take that box and destroy everything in it," Buck mused. "That would take care of the whole situation."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Vaahn said with a slight smirk.

Buck started to reach across the table toward the box. Suddenly six guns were pointed at Buck's head. Slowly he drew back his arm.

"That's not going to happen." He nodded toward one of the men in the room. "I believe it's getting late. Take our guests to their rooms. Give them some food and drink. Maybe tomorrow cooler heads will prevail and we can make plans on what to do."

"Are we guests or prisoners?" Buck asked, glancing at the weapons.

Vaahn smirked. "Guests, of course. Guests with limited access. I can't have the information in this box being jeopardized. Have a good night's sleep Captain, Colonel. Tomorrow we will discuss our plans."

"So why do we want to do that?"

"Because if you don't, eventually the assassins will succeed and we will all be dead."

Buck merely nodded. There was no argument for that.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Doctor Estes walked into the tiny, dim room. She pulled up a stool and sat down beside the droid lying motionless on the cold, metallic table. After placing the toolbox she carried onto the table, she set her elbow on the table, rested her head tiredly into her palm, and closed her eyes for several minutes. Finally she opened her eyes and looked at the circular object at the head of the table.

"Any progress at all, Doctor Theopolis?" she asked softly, hopefully.

"I'm afraid that's hard to say. Physically his body is responding well to the repairs. However, there is still no response to his central computer core. The only thing I can suggest is we may have to reprogram him to his original specifications."

Estes sighed heavily. "But Buck said he didn't want him reprogrammed."

"I know. Thus my dilemma. Do we continue with the repairs, knowing there is a good chance he will never recover? Or do we take the chance that Captain Rogers will 'settle' for another droid?"

"Buck made it very clear that if we couldn't repair Twiki to his former self, then he doesn't want a replacement model. Even if it's the same droid with a different inner processor. Let's just keep going for awhile and see what happens."

"Agreed. We owe Buck that much. He has done so much for us that the least we can do is to try to repay him with our efforts here."

"Thank you, Dr. Theopolis." Estes took an instrument from her tool box and unscrewed a panel from Twiki's forearm. She took another instrument and inserted it into the opening. "Are you reading this?"  
>"Affirmative."<p>

She nodded in approval. "Good. See if you can operate his hand."

Almost instantly Twiki's right hand opened and closed several times. Estes confirmed the readings on her instrument. "We're definitely getting good current through here. Let's try his feet."

"Please forgive me, Dr. Estes. I just received a communiqué from Dr. Acropolis from the Security Council. I need to go to silent mode for a moment while I answer."

"I understand. I'll get Twiki ready."

She replaced the arm panel as Theo's lights went 'silent.' She moved the stool to Twiki's right leg and then removed a tiny panel from his calf. She took the second instrument and slowly inserted it into the leg opening.

Suddenly the whole leg spasmed six inches off the table. "Beep-be-de-de-beep: that tickles!"

Estes jerked her hand away from the quad so quickly that she slid off the stool and fell to the floor in a thud. Wide-eyed, she quickly scrambled to her feet.

"Dr. Theopolis! Did you hear that?"  
>The lights on the computer suddenly flashed in several colors. "Dr. Estes; are you unharmed? What happened?"<p>

"Did you hear that?" she repeated excitedly.

"Hear what?"

"Twiki! Twiki talked! That's why I fell off the stool! He talked and startled me!"

"I apologize, Dr. Estes. I told you earlier that Twiki's central computer core is unresponsive. It is impossible for him to communicate in any way in his current state."

"But I heard him!" she insisted. "I know I'm tired, but I know I didn't imagine it!"

"But it is physically...," Theo stopped midsentence. "Come to think of it, Captain Rogers said the same thing before he left for Trixtania. He thought he heard Twiki speak as well. I shall run another diagnostic to confirm earlier... Dr. Estes; where are you going?"

She was almost to the door when she whirled around to answer the computer. "I'm calling Dr. Huer."

"Do you realize what time it is?"

"Yes, I do! But he said to keep him informed of any progress. And I don't care what you say, but I call this progress. I'll be back before you finish your diagnostic."

"But there is no progress to report," Theo argued.

"I don't care what you say, Dr. Theopolis. I heard him! That's progress! I'll be right back."

"Very well," Theo mused as the door closed behind the doctor. He almost sighed. "Humans become so emotional. Why am I concerned? It's not my sleep that she's going to interrupt. In fact, I don't need sleep. Humans," he repeated as he began the diagnostic.

# # # # # # #

When Buck was led into the room, he noticed that Wilma and Vaahn were already at the table. He sat down in the chair beside Wilma and leaned over.

"How'd you sleep?" he asked.

"Surprisingly well," she admitted.

"How was your fish?" Vaahn asked Buck.

He nodded his approval. "It was very good. I haven't had a meal like that in a long time."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it. Now that we've all had a good night's rest, we can discuss what we need to do."

"What if we do nothing?" Buck asked.

Vaahn shrugged nonchalantly. "Then we will continue to have people trying to kill us until they finally succeed."

Buck sighed. "Okay. So what do you have in mind, because I get the feeling you've already got a plan."

Vaahn smiled broadly. "You are very perceptive, Captain. Yes, I do have a plan. First of all we need to go to Miney and infiltrate their capital and take out their leadership."

"And by 'we' you mean me and Wilma." It was not a question.

Vaahn grinned sarcastically. "Yes. I apologize, but I will be unable to go with you. My face is too recognizable."

"Well obviously they know us too!"

"Not so. It will be easier for you and Colonel Deering to disguise yourselves. Only the Prime Minister and his cabinet know about you. My face has been on their wanted/hated list for a very long time, even before my exile. Everyone from school children to the cabinet would recognize me instantly. Remember, the information about _you_ is highly classified. Only the ruling council ever learned about you or even know your names."

"Uh-huh," Buck said unconvincingly.

"So you want Buck and I to assassinate the Prime Minister and his entire cabinet?" Wilma asked for clarification. "We're not some assassins for hire. We are agents of Earth's Security Council."

"Who happen to be on Miney's Prime Minister's black list. It's either them or you. Unless, of course, you prefer to live in exile like I am."

"Oh I don't know," Buck mumbled. "You have it pretty good here."

"Besides," Vaahn continued, choosing to ignore Buck's comment. "It's not like you've never done anything like this before."

"That was different," Wilma argued. "That was a matter of life and death for the whole planet. We were fighting to save Earth."

"You still are. How many people would die if Earth and Miney went to war?"

Buck sighed. "How many people are we talking about on his cabinet?"

Vaahn turned to look at Buck. He nodded once in approval. "The Prime Minister has five people in his cabinet."

"So you want us to assassinate six people?"

"How many billion people died in the holocaust? What's six more for the continued safety of planet Earth?"

Buck leaned back in the chair and rolled his eyes. "I wish people would stop bringing that up! If you have to know, I lost everything in the holocaust! I lost my parents, my finance, my whole life! This is not a game!"

"I apologize," Vaahn said softly. "I did not intend for it to sound like that. I just wish to convey the urgency of the situation. The longer we sit here and debate about what to do, the longer they have to plan our assassination."

Buck shook his head. "What is it about you Vaahn's?"

"Huh?"

"How many generations of Vaahn's have asked strangers to do their dirty work assassinations? I know of at least two."

Vaahn nodded. "I understand your feelings. But if it's any consolation, you will not be alone. I will send two of my men to assist you. They can act as your body guards if you like."

"Body guards or work release wardens?"

"Don't get me wrong. I want you to do this task, but I am by no means forcing you to do anything. I am giving you the option of controlling your own destiny. If you do not wish to do this, I can not force you one way or the other. I am just giving you the opportunity to get to the bottom of who is trying to kill you, and who hurt your best friend."

Buck sighed. "Okay, what's your plan?"

"You will get to Miney in an official Gaussian shuttle that-"

"Where do we get that?"

"I have one," Vaahn replied nonchalantly.

"Where'd you get it?"

"You forget that I'm a former high-ranking official of Gauss. I brought it with me to exile. As I was saying, you will take the shuttle to Miney, under the guise of doing an unscheduled inspection of their military capabilities."

"Unscheduled inspection?" Wilma questioned. "Won't that arouse their suspicions?"

"On the contrary, they're used to unscheduled inspections. That was one of the stipulations of our treaty with them fifty years ago when we removed the planetary embargo and blockade."

"The whole planet was blockaded?"

"Indeed. It was the best way to ensure that they couldn't incite any kind of rebellion or revolt against us. Moving on; when you get to Miney, you will request a conference with the cabinet. And then you eliminate them."

"How?" Buck asked.

"I leave the method up to you. But be very careful, because if the cabinet recognizes you, they will not hesitate to kill you on sight."

"If we do this, what about the information you have in that little black box of yours? That could still cause a lot of damage for me and Wilma."

Vaahn nodded knowingly. "I agree. We can discuss that when you return from Miney. I'm sure we can come up with some sort of agreement. Perhaps I could delay releasing all the pertinent information about the holocaust, such as any information concerning the two of you, until after your natural deaths."

"Oh, that's a comfort."

"Don't worry, Captain Rogers. I am not opposed to keeping your names out of the public record if you wish it. I understand your reservations. But we can discuss all of this when you return. Right now speed is of the utmost concern. We must deal with the Prime Minister and his cabinet as soon as possible. So are you willing to do this?"

Buck and Wilma exchanged glances for a long moment. "I don't see any other way out of this," Buck admitted.

Wilma nodded. "I agree."

Buck sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "Let's see where this train takes us."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The door whooshed open noisily. Doctor Estes whirled around to face the newcomer. Doctor Huer quickly entered the room, but stopped almost as quickly when he saw the look of utter frustration on the woman's face. She turned slowly back to face the lifeless body on the metallic table.

"When was the last time you slept?" he asked her.

"Thirty-six hours and twenty-eight minutes," came the computerized reply of Doctor Theopolis, still situated at the head of the table where he had been for the last three days.

Estes glanced at Theo out of the corner of her eye. "Has it been that long?" she wondered aloud.

"I understand you've made some progress on Twiki," Huer changed the subject as he approached the table.

Estes shrugged. "I thought so too."

Huer furrowed his brows. "I don't understand. You said Twiki spoke. That's progress, isn't it?"

"Just as Captain Rogers thought he heard Twiki communicate, Doctor Estes also thought so as well. However, all the diagnostic checks I've run indicate otherwise. There appears to be no activity in Twiki's inner processing core. Therefore, it would have been impossible for anyone to have heard Twiki speaking."

Estes shook her head. "I heard him," she argued mildly. "I was not hallucinating."

"No, no, of course not," Huer said quickly. "No one's accusing you of hallucinating, Doctor. Can you explain what happened?"

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then released it slowly, tiredly. "I was inspecting his interior conductive circuits when Doctor Theopolis received a communiqué from the security council. When I was checking Twiki's leg with this monitor, his leg jerked up in the air and Twiki said, 'That tickles!""

"I see. Doctor Theopolis, you said that Buck heard him as well?"

"Indeed, Doctor Huer. Captain Rogers came in here before he left for Trixtania. He asked if he could speak to Twiki alone for a few minutes privately. I told him that Twiki was in no state to respond to him, but he insisted and didn't seem to mind. I believe Captain Rogers merely wanted someone to talk to. He requested that I went to silent mode so he could talk to Twiki alone. I granted his request for alone time with Twiki and I went to silent mode for five minutes. During his alone time, he claimed to have heard Twiki speak to him. However, I believe he was still suffering from Oxygen Deprivation Syndrome."

Doctor Huer nodded once as he rested his hands on the cold table top. "I see." He then folded his arms together and looked slowly around the room. "Let me get this straight. According to all the reports and technical issues, it is physically impossible for Twiki to be communicating with anyone."

"That is correct."

"Yet we have two highly reliable witnesses who refute that."

"Indeed."

"And you have no explanation?"

"There is a possible scenario where both Captain Rogers and Doctor Estes could have mistakenly thought they heard something."

"Hey," Estes started.

"In both cases of Captain Rogers and Doctor Estes," Theo continued, preempting any complaints Estes had. "I believe both of them were suffering from oxygen depletion."

Estes began to protest again, but Theo continued.

"Captain Rogers was recovering from his unplanned space walk and Doctor Estes is suffering from oxygen depletion due to lack of sleep."

Estes glared at Theo, but said nothing. Instead she simply set her elbow on the table and rested her head into the open palm. Huer suddenly snapped his fingers.

"Speaking of Buck's spacewalk, that reminds me: we found the little black box from the Gaussian shuttle that self destructed and nearly took Buck with it. I was wondering if you would have time to take a look at it."

"Certainly," Theo replied energetically. "I have ample amount of memory storage free to complete that task as well as working on Twiki."

"Excellent. I have the complete logs here. The file is rather large."

"That's quite alright, Doctor. I can download it quickly. However, what about the Gaussian ambassador or the Gaussian government? Have they given their approval that we look at the information on these logs? After all, it came from a high ranking Gaussian shuttle."

Huer grinned wanly. "They don't know we've recovered it yet."

"This is highly irregular," Theo commented.

"Yes, yes, I know. Just examine the contents having to do with Buck and the last minutes of the flight before it self destructed. Everything else we can delete later."

"If you are sure."

"I'll take all the responsibility if anything comes of this," Huer added.

"Very well."

Huer produced a small disc from his chest pocket. He went to the computer behind the table and inserted it into the slot.

"I'll go to silent mode," Theo said. "I'll be able to download it faster."

Huer nodded as he moved back toward the foot of the table. He glanced at Estes who almost looked like she was sleeping. She opened her eyes and glanced up.

"If you don't mind, Doctor Huer, I think I'll go lie down for awhile."

Huer shook his head. "No, of course not. You're of no use to us if you're too exhausted to move. Go rest."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: I thought he'd never shut up."

Estes leaped to her feet as the stool fell backwards to the floor. Huer jerked his head to look at the silver body on the table.

Just then, Theo's lights flashed as he came out of silent mode. "Download complete," he announced.

"Doctor Theopolis," Huer spoke slowly, eyes widened. "Did you by any chance hear anything just now?"

"Hear what?"

"Twiki just talked again!" Estes exclaimed excitedly.

If Theo were human, he would have let out a very audible sigh. Instead he simply blinked a couple times as he measured out how he would reply. "As I told you earlier, my diagnostic..."

"I don't care about you diagnostic reports!" Huer snapped. "I heard him this time! You can do a diagnostic on me if you care to, but I am not suffering from oxygen depletion! I heard Twiki speak."

Theo started to argue but then stopped. "Perhaps there is some other logical explanation. There must be something I'm missing."

"I believe there is," Huer stated matter of factly.

"What did Twiki say?"

"He said, 'I thought he'd never shut up!'" Huer answered.

"I wonder who he was talking about," Estes commented softly.

Huer began to pace the length of the table. "Doctor Theopolis," he started slowly. "You said when Buck was here talking to Twiki, you went to silent mode."

"Affirmative."

"And you were in silent mode just now when you were downloading the file from the ship's logs."

"Affirmative."

Huer nodded. "Were you in silent mode when Doctor Estes heard him?"

"Yes. I was assisting Doctor Acropolis on a security council issue."

Estes looked at Huer who had stopped his pacing. "Consciousness transfer?" she asked hopefully.

Huer bit his lower lip hesitantly. "It's possible. It would explain a lot."

"Consciousness transfer possible," Theo replied. "However, I would be aware of any unauthorized access into my memory core."

"Do you mind if we do a quick test?"

"What do you propose?"

"Go to silent mode again for two minutes. We can video record the process and play back anything we see or hear."

"If you think it will help. Honestly, I don't see the need for this experiment. I have told you that I would be aware of any foreign consciousness in my core, but I will do as you ask to humor you. Afterwards, we will try to come up with a possible explanation for reliable sources to be hearing Twiki."

"Thank you, Doctor Theopolis. Give us a minute to set up."

Estes left the room quickly for only a moment. She returned with a tripod and a video recorder which she quickly hooked up to the computer. She pressed the record button and nodded toward Huer.

"Okay, Doctor Theopolis. Go silent now for two minutes."

The lights on the circular computer extinguished. Doctor Huer slowly approached Twiki's head as Estes remained behind the camera.

"Twiki, can you hear me?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: loud and clear, Doc."

Huer turned to face Estes. A smile rapidly formed on both of their faces. He turned back to face the droid. "Twiki, where are you?"

"I don't know, Doc. Everything's dark... and cold."

"You can't see anything?" Huer pressed.

"It's as dark as the North Pole at midnight."

Estes quickly moved to make some adjustments on Twiki's eyes. She looked up and shrugged. "They're working properly," she said softly.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: not for me, they aren't. It's colder here than a witch's-"

"Where's 'here'?" Huer interrupted. "Are you inside Doctor Theopolis?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: I hope not!"

"What did you mean when you said you thought he'd never shut up? Who do you hear talking?"

"Doctor Theopolis. He's been talking nonstop for over six hours."

Estes jerked her head to look at Theo. "No he hasn't," she argued. "We've been working here in relative silence. He hasn't said more than ten words that whole time."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: lucky you. Maybe you just can't hear him."

"But you can?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Beep-be-de-de-beep: more than I care. How's Buck?"

"The last we heard from him, he had just landed on Trixtania to meet with someone. He and Colonel Deering are trying to figure out who did this to you and who is trying to kill them."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: find Black Crow One."

Estes and Huer exchanged quick confused looks, just as Theo's lights illuminated. "Black Crow One?" Estes whispered incredulously.

"How does Twiki know about Black Crow One?" Huer repeated. "Unless..."

"Buck mentioned it in the infirmary," Estes said slowly. "But that was after Twiki was incapacitated.

Huer slowly turned toward Theo. "It's on the file you just downloaded. I believe Twiki is indeed inside your core."

"Preposterous!" Theo nearly exploded.

"No, it's the only logical conclusion!" Estes confirmed. "There's no other way!"

"But I would know if.."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: blowhard."

Theo's lights blinked rapidly for several moments. "Twiki! B-b-but... h-h-how..." Theo stammered.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: You left the back door open."

"This is wonderful!" Estes exclaimed happily, leaping up. "All we have to do now is figure out how to get Twiki's consciousness transferred back into his own processing core."

"What we need to do is figure out how Twiki's consciousness transferred to Doctor Theopolis in the first place. And figure out how much information Twiki has absorbed from Dr. Theopolis. There is a lot of high level information Twiki is not cleared to know in there."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: get me out of here!"

"Yes, we need to remove you from my core."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: I've heard of being bi polar, but this is ridiculous."

"Well how do you think I feel? I don't want you in here any more than you want to be in here."

Estes grinned and turned toward Huer. "They argue worse than a married couple."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: get me outa here."

"Calm down, Twiki. All we have to do is figure out how to remove you from my core and get you back into your own. It won't take me long to figure this out if you'll just be quiet and let me work."

Huer rubbed his lower chin. "Perhaps that can wait for a little while, Doctor Theopolis."

"What do you mean?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: whatcha talking about, Doc?"

A hint of a smile creased the corners of his lips. "I might have an idea of how we can help Buck." He glanced at Estes. "How soon can you get Twiki's body mobile?"


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Vaahn led Buck and Wilma through the underground complex maze of corridors until they finally entered a large room. In the center of the chamber sat a large shuttle with the Gaussian national logo emblazoned upon it in several places. Vaahn turned and smiled.

"I leave my shuttle in your very capable hands," he said, grinning at Buck. "I assume you can fly it with no problems?"

Buck nodded once. "If it moves, I can fly it."

"Good." Vaahn noticed two large men moving away from the shuttle toward them. "Ah, these are the two men I was telling you about. They will act as your bodyguards."

Buck inspected them as they moved across the hangar floor. "They look like the Barbarian Brothers," he muttered.

"The Barbarian who?" Wilma asked.

Buck simply smirked as he shook his head. The two men stepped up to Vaahn and saluted. Vaahn returned the salute, then turned to face Buck.

"They are in fact brothers. You noticed the resemblance?"

"A little bit," Buck answered sarcastically.

"This is Fricholek," Vaahn started.

"And I'm Fracholas," the other announced proudly as he saluted Wilma.

Buck grinned slightly. "Frick and Frack, huh?"  
>Both men saluted Buck. "At your service," they said in unison.<p>

Buck glanced at both Vaahn and Wilma out of the corner of his eyes before finally answering, "Right." He turned to Vaahn. "I'd like to contact Doctor Huer if that's possible."

Vaahn frowned visibly. "That may not be a good idea. This mission must remain absolutely confidential if it has any hopes of success. If your transmission were leaked or intercepted, it may prove disastrous."

"I don't plan on giving him any details over a non-secure transmission," Buck replied indignantly. "This isn't exactly the first top-secret mission I've ever done."

"He wants to check up on Twiki," Wilma chimed in, smiling.

Buck looked at Wilma out of the corner of his eye again. "Am I that obvious?"

Wilma wrapped both hands around his forearm and smiled broadly. "When it comes to Twiki, yes you are," she replied sweetly.

Vaahn grinned and nodded. "I understand. My shuttle has a secure channel you can use. Just be careful is all I ask."

"I'm always careful."

Wilma cocked her head and glared up at him. "Really?"

The ever so slight hint of a grin appeared at the corner of his mouth. "What? I always have protection with me..., at least when Twiki is around I do."

Wilma continued to stare up at him. "Really?" she repeated. "He's not protection," she argued. "He's a partner in crime."

The slight hint of a grin quickly became a full grown smile. He waved his free hand toward the shuttle. "Let's get going. We're burning daylight. Or at least I assume it's day outside."

Vaahn saluted the two Earth agents. "Good luck Captain, Colonel. I will anxiously await your successful return."

Buck and Wilma started to cross the chamber with Frick and Frack following in step closely behind. When they reached the ship, Buck jumped into the pilot's seat as Wilma took the copilot's seat. The two bodyguards found bucket seats in the passenger area behind the cockpit and buckled themselves in. Buck studied the controls briefly before bringing the engines to life. As he did a large opening in the wall ahead of them appeared. Bright sunlight began to pour into the cockpit. Both Buck and Wilma had to shield their eyes for several moments before they became adjusted to the light. By the time they did, the opening was large enough for the shuttle to exit into the desert air. When Buck eased the shuttle through the opening, he happened to look down at the desert floor.

"Oh nuts," he muttered almost to himself.

Wilma turned her head quickly. "What's wrong?"

He pointed down and to his right. Wilma's gaze followed the point. "We forgot to return the hovercraft. I hope Finegan doesn't take it out of our security deposit."

Wilma simply smiled and leaned back in her seat. Quickly the shuttle ascended into the atmosphere. Within minutes they were flying through the blackness of space. Buck tapped a series of buttons on the console before him and then leaned back in his seat. Several moments passed before the image of an elderly man appeared on the screen between the two pilot's seats.

"Morning, Doctor Huer," Buck said, smiling.

"Buck!" he replied cheerfully. "I was not expecting to hear from you quite so quickly. How is your vacation going?"

Buck and Wilma exchanged quick glances. "It's going great! Just wanted to touch base with you before we hit the stargate."

Huer cocked his head a bit. "Stargate?"

"Yeah. We're doing a quick tour of the whole sector. You know, just seeing the major sights."

Huer nodded. "Of course."

"Any news on Twiki?"

Doctor Huer's face brightened. "As a matter of fact there is!"

Buck's eyes widened. "Really? He's fixed?"

Huer hesitated for the slightest of moments. "I was wondering if you would like to have him accompany you for the rest of your journey."

"Sure! That'd be great!"

"Where would be a convenient place to meet you? I don't want to make you come all the way back here if you're not going to be in the immediate area."

Buck looked at Wilma. She rubbed her chin and lowered her head in thought for a moment. "How about Starbase 10?" she proffered.

Buck nodded as he turned back toward the view screen. "Yeah, Starbase 10 would work."

"Excellent. I can send a courier to meet you there in a couple hours."

"Great! Thanks, Doc. And give Dr. Estes and Theo my thanks too."

Huer smiled warmly. "I'll let you give them your thanks when you see them."

"Fair enough. Thanks, Doc. Well we gotta go; we're almost to the stargate. See ya later, Doc."

Buck tapped a button and Huer's face disappeared from the screen. He turned to look at Wilma. "Isn't that great!"

"Captain Rogers?"

Buck turned to look at the two men in the passenger area. He had almost forgotten about them.

"Are you sure that is a wise decision?" asked Frick.

"What do you mean?"

"Starbase 10 is pretty big. It's right beside one of the busiest stargates in the galaxy. If the assassins were able to intercept your transmission, you just told them where you would be. That's going to make our job a little harder."

"The transmission was on a secure channel."

"Yes, I realize that, but it's still possible that it could have been intercepted. The assassins could have hi-tech decoding programs. They could be there before us, just waiting for us to land."

Buck thought for only a moment. "That is possible, but if I have the chance of getting Twiki back to help me, I'm all for that."

"What's so important about a droid?"

Buck smiled knowingly. "Twiki has saved my life more times than I care to admit. If it means getting him back, I'll take the chance. Right Wilma?"

Buck turned to look at Wilma. However she did not return the pleased look clearly on Buck's face. Instead she seemed to be deep in thought. Buck's smile quickly faded. "What's wrong?"

Wilma bit her upper lip. "I don't know, but something just isn't right."

Buck frowned. "Was it something he said?" he asked, indicating Frick.

Wilma quickly shook her head. "No, not him."

"Was it something Doctor Huer said?" Buck pressed.

She shook her head. "More like something he didn't say."

"You were profiling him?"

Wilma shrugged. "Sorry, bad habit. I'm used to interrogating people and reading them, not only their responses but their body language too."

"What did you pick up?"

"He never said that Twiki was 'fixed.'"

"But we're going to rendezvous with him right now," Buck argued mildly. "He wouldn't send him if he wasn't fixed... right?"

Once again she shrugged. "He might be functional, but I don't think he's 'fixed.' And there's another thing. When you said to give your thanks to Dr. Estes and Dr. Theopolis, he said you can do that in person. I think he's sending one or both of them with Twiki. Something still isn't right with Twiki, though. I'll bet you lunch on it!"

Buck shook his head, then quickly turned to do some quick calculations on the console. "No bet," he said as the shuttle entered into the stargate. "I've paid for far too many of your lunches lately."

Wilma merely smirked.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

When the shuttle landed, the four passengers exited and slowly made their way across the hangar to the customs area. After passing through customs, they exited the hangar completely and started down a long corridor. Buck slowed to a stop, turned to face Wilma.

"I'll go check with the duty officer and see if they have an ETA for Twiki's shuttle," he said.

Frick stepped forward. "I'll come with you. I want to see if any shuttles have landed since your transmission to Earth."

Buck nodded in acquiescence. "Fair enough."

"Sounds good," Wilma replied. "I'll meet you in the cafeteria."

"Hungry?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "A little bit."

Buck grinned. "Ok. Save me a seat."

Buck and Frick turned to head back toward the hangar while Wilma and Frack continued down the hall. Wilma led the way to the cafeteria where she found a large table in the far corner of the room. She waited nearly half an hour before Buck entered the room. He scanned the room and quickly found Wilma and Frack sitting in the corner. He strolled up to the table and sat down.

"Eat already?"

She shook her head. "I was waiting for you. Did you find anything out?"

Both Buck and Frick nodded. "There's only one shuttle from Earth scheduled to land, and that should be in about an hour."

"And since Captain Roger's transmission to Earth, eight shuttles have landed. I did a quick check of them and they all appear to be legitimate. Nothing else is scheduled until the shuttle from Earth."

"Good. So what are we going to do for an hour while we wait?"

"I believe the starbase has a small casino," Frack offered. "If you're into that sort of thing, you can play ten and eleven, or the wheel."

A gleam suddenly appeared in Buck's eyes. "I could play some blackjack after lunch. I can teach you, Wilma."

She started to protest, but quickly changed her mind. Instead, she nodded and smiled as she placed both elbows on the table. "That would be enjoyable!" she smiled.

"Really?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes," she said sincerely. "I would enjoy having you teach me how to play ten and eleven, er, blackjack."

"Okay! I just didn't see you as the gambling type."

Wilma shrugged one shoulder. The gambling wasn't what was appealing about Buck's proposition. She had decided the night before, before they were so rudely interrupted in the desert, that she would try to spend more time with Buck in whatever he was doing. If he wanted to play blackjack, she would join him and at least feign interest. Maybe that would make her more appealing to him! Again she shrugged the one shoulder.

"You tried to teach me before but we were doing a job then. Now it's for fun, so it'll be different. I'm willing to learn anything you want to teach me."

Buck smirked. "You may regret saying that!"

After lunch, Frick went back to the hangar to do some more background checks on the shuttles as Frack went to the casino to scout ahead of Buck and Wilma. When they entered the casino, Buck led Wilma to the nearest blackjack table and immediately started teaching her the intricacies of the game. The fact that they were winning had absolutely no appeal to her whatsoever. What she found the most entertaining was the boyish giggle Buck would release every time he had a hand higher than the dealer. Every time he leaned over the table to collect his chips, she would catch a whif of his cologne. The sensation tickled her nose and she would close her eyes for just an instant and let the scent overtake her senses. Then the dealer would pass out another hand and Buck would lean over to look at her cards and advise her on what she should do. Half of the time she would not be paying attention to his words. Instead of actually listening to what he was saying, she was reveling in the closeness of his body to hers, the touch of his hand on hers, the nudges of his shoulder into hers... If she had been drinking, she would have explained her light-headedness on the alcohol, but since she didn't drink, she really had no explanation for the whole situation. But the biggest thing that appealed to her was her unwillingness to explain the whole situation. She was doing something she had rarely ever allowed herself to do: enjoy the situation without trying to analyze it.

In fact she was so enthralled with the experience that she never saw Frack step up behind Buck to whisper something in his ear. Buck finished the hand they were on and then stood up to leave. Wilma almost fell over, not realizing that she had been leaning on him!

"What's up?" she asked, trying to regain some of her composure.

"The Terran shuttle is landing," Buck explained as he helped her to her feet.

"Already?" she asked, trying to hide her disappointment.

Buck nodded as he helped to steady her. "Yeah, we've been here half an hour. You gonna be alright?"

Wilma wobbled on her feet for a moment before finally regaining some of her balance. "I'm okay," she slurred as she shook her head a few times in an attempt to get the oxygen moving around again.

Buck simply smiled at her. "Don't worry," he said softly, leaning over to whisper in her ear. "The first time I learned how to gamble, I had the same reaction. It can be very addicting, and intoxicating."

The closeness of his hot breath on her ear sent more waves of emotions swirling into and through her head. She grabbed onto Buck's arm with both hands, partially to steady herself and partially just for the physical contact. She looked up and smiled. "I'm okay. Let's go get Twiki."

As they walked out of the casino and through the corridors, the colder air quickly returned Wilma to her senses. The feeling of light-headedness faded as the rational, quick-thinking colonel instincts returned. She fought the urge to disengage herself from Buck's arm. Instead, she leaned a little closer and fell into rhythm matching his step with hers.

They moved through the corridors to the deck overlooking the hangar. They watched as the shuttle rolled to a stop. Several minutes passed before the shuttle door opened. Wilma was just about to say something when suddenly her heart began to pound rapidly. The fact that she had just opened her mouth to say something actually caused her to release an audible gasp. Unknowingly her grip on Buck's arm tightened slightly. Buck looked at her out of the corner of his eye, and then back on the figure exiting the shuttle. The beautiful blonde woman stopped at the bottom of the ramp and turned to look back inside the shuttle. Wilma glanced up at Buck to try to gauge any reaction from him. Was he happy to see Devyn here? Was he already making plans in his head to spend time with her before leaving again?

A moment passed before the look on Buck's face did indeed change. However, it was not exactly the change Wilma had expected. This was not a look of happiness, but confusion and almost outrage.

"What the...?" he gasped.

Wilma turned to look down at the hangar floor. Almost instantly she realized what had given Buck his reaction. Walking down the shuttle's ramp was Doctor Theopolis hanging from the neck of a small, golden droid.

"That's not Twiki!" Buck hissed.

"Maybe they had to give him a new body," Wilma proffered.

Buck gently released Wilma's grip on him and he quickly turned away from the glass. He took the escalator to the lower level and stood impatiently outside the customs exit door. Wilma quickly but silently followed. Buck turned to look at her briefly.

"You were right again."

"About what?" she wondered.

Buck shrugged. "You said something wasn't right about Twiki. It looks like you were right, as usual."

She rested her right hand on his forearm. "Does that mean you owe me another lunch?" she asked hopefully.

Buck almost grinned as he looked away. "Nope. We didn't shake."

"We never did before either."

"I know what you're doing."

Wilma cocked her head. "What?"

He turned to look at her again. "You do this every time. You're trying to put me in a better mood. I wanna be in a bad mood when 'Twiki' walks through this door. I want some explanations. I don't want you making me feel better."

"Sorry."

Buck shook his head and smiled. "You keep doing what you do. If I didn't have you around, I'd be mad a lot more than I need to be."

Just then the door opened. Devyn stepped into the corridor with the golden droid closely behind. Buck put his hands on his hips and opened his mouth to say something, but the droid beat him to it.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: long time no see, Buck!"

Quite possibly for the first time in his life, Buck Rogers was speechless.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"What's going on here?" Buck finally managed to blurt out.

"Boop-bo-do-do-boop."

Buck cocked his head to one side, then looked questioningly at Devyn.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: shut up," Twiki said. "Nobody asked you."

"Now Twiki," Doctor Theopolis chimed in. "That is no way to speak to Kimel."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: blow it out your hole."

Devyn closed her eyes and let her head fall backwards. She sighed heavily. "They've been at it like this for two hours; ever since they got on the shuttle."

Buck furrowed his eyes. "What's going on?" he repeated. "Who's Kimel?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Golden boy."

"Huh?"

"Please allow me to explain," Theo started.

"You might want to sit down for this, Buck," Twiki said.

"You might want to have a drink," Devyn interrupted. "Or two."

Several people exited a room and began to walk toward them. Buck glanced at them as they neared. "Yeah, let's go somewhere quiet." He turned to Wilma. "You know the space station better than I do. Do you know somewhere we can go?"

She grinned and nodded. "Yes I do. Follow me."

She led the party through the corridors for several minutes before stopping at a particular door. She opened the door and motioned for everyone to enter.

"This is a public conference room. We can talk privately in here."

Frack entered the room first to check it out. Devyn leaned into Buck. "Who is he?" she whispered.

"Bodyguard," he whispered back.

"Huh?"

Buck nodded once. "I'll explain later."

Wilma glared at Devyn for a moment. Frack came back into the doorway and nodded. "It's clear," he announced.

Everyone entered the room and found a seat at the large table. Buck crossed his legs and turned to face the new droid. "Okay, Doc. What's going on?"

There was a long pause, almost as if Theopolis was trying to think of how to explain the whole situation. Finally he began to speak. "Have you ever heard of consciousness transfer?" he asked.

A confused look crossed Buck's face. He turned to look at Wilma. She cocked her head to one side, looked at Twiki/Kimel. "That's when the consciousness of a droid is transplanted to another droid, isn't it?" she asked.

"Essentially, yes."

"You mean that Twiki is inside... Kimel?" Buck asked.

"Not exactly."

"Then-"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: I'm inside Doctor 'Talks-a-lot'!"

"Now Twiki, we agreed that I was going to explain this."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: then get on with it. I'm not getting any younger."

"God, I have a headache," Devyn muttered almost inaudibly.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: you have a headache? I don't have a head and I have a headache."

"Boop-bo-do-do-boop."

"Shut up," Twiki said again.

Buck's head drooped forward. "I'm starting to get one too. Can someone please explain what's going on?"

"Boop-be-do-do-boop."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep."

Buck pulled out his laser gun and aimed it at the droid. "The next person to talk that's not Doctor Theopolis gets shot."

The room immediately went silent. "Thank you, Captain. I am beginning to understand some of the research on multiple personality disorder."

Buck sighed as he holstered his weapon. "I bet. Now please, Doc. Explain."

"Of course. You know that when Twiki was taken to the infirmary, I requested to be taken there as well to assist in the repairs. I was connected to him directly and electronically to speed up the repairs. Somehow, and we're still trying to figure out how, Twiki's consciousness left his droid body and transferred to one of my backup minor cores. At first he could only be heard when I went into silent mode."

"So when I heard him talk, I wasn't imagining it?"

"That is correct. Later that day Doctor Estes also heard Twiki when I was in private session with Doctor Acropolis. We didn't realize what was happening until yesterday when Doctor Huer heard him while I was downloading the log from the destroyed Gaussian shuttle."

"So the only time he could communicate was when you were in silent mode?" Buck asked.

"That is correct."

"Then why can we hear him now?"

"Somehow he managed to tap into an unused connection."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: heh heh heh."

Buck grinned slightly. "He is resourceful."

"For a common droid," Theo commented.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: watch it bub."

"So all you have to do is send him back, right?" Wilma asked hopefully.

"It's not that easy," Theo replied. "We don't know how it happened in the first place. We have to figure that out before we can figure out how to send him back."

"Holy bi-polarism, Batman," Buck said softly. When everyone looked at him questioningly, he simply shrugged and shook his head. "So what's with the gold droid?"

"Twiki's body wasn't quite ready to perform physical maneuvers up to specifications, so we borrowed Kimel from Doctor Estes."

"Boop-bo-do-do-boop."

"And there wasn't time to disconnect his vocal circuits," Twiki added.

"I see."

"Doctor Theopolis," Wilma interrupted. "You said you downloaded the logs from the Gaussian shuttle?"

"Indeed."

"Did you find anything out yet?"

"No, not yet. I am still in the process of filtering out the noise and analyzing the final transmission."

"How long will that take?"

"I should have had it completed before now, but I'm dealing with other... distractions."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: I'm not a distraction."

"Yes you are."

Buck glanced over at Wilma. "They argue more than my grandparents did."

Devyn stood up. "I'd love to stay and chat some more," she said, looking and smiling at Buck. "But I really have to get back to the Directorate."

"Leaving so soon?" Buck asked.

"Yeah. I need to go back and get a couple hours sleep before my shift starts."

Wilma tapped Buck on the shoulder as she, too, stood. "We should get going too. We still have a long flight ahead of us."

Buck nodded to both women. "Yeah, you're right."

"Have a safe flight back to Earth," Wilma said politely.

Devyn grinned and nodded. "You too."

Just as Devyn reached the door, a shrill alarm sounded throughout the space station. Buck tried to ask what was happening but no one could hear him over the alarm. Finally after what seemed forever, the alarm stopped and a male voice sounded over the PA system.

"This is Captain Curtis, chief of operations of Space Station 10. I regret to inform all inhabitants of this space station, but we are on immediate lock-down. There will be no ingoing or outgoing traffic from this space station until further notice. We have detected a massive solar flare from our neighboring star. Do not worry, though. This space station is capable of withstanding the brunt of the ionization and radiation from the solar flare, but the entire sector will be flooded within minutes. There will be a disruption to all communications for approximately twelve hours. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, but we are equipped with emergency shelter rooms free of charge, and plenty of supplies for everyone here. Normal operations should resume in approximately twenty-four hours. Please don't panic. This is a relatively common occurrence here. There is nothing to be afraid of. Just consider this a twenty-four hour vacation. If this is going to interfere with anyone's work or travel schedule, I will be happy to vouch for the situation with your employer or client. I truly apologize for any inconvenience, but sometimes Mother Nature plays these little games on us. Please enjoy your stay and visit the lounge or the casino, all free of charge for the duration of the lockdown. Thank you and have a nice stay."

Buck looked at Devyn who was standing in the open doorway. "I guess you'll be staying a little longer after all."

She grinned. "You planned this, didn't you? You just didn't want me to leave!"

Wilma glared at both of them for only a moment before she huffed. "I'll go find us a couple rooms for the night."

She started for the door. "I'll come with you," Devyn offered.

"I can manage alone," Wilma countered curtly, passing by her and into the hall.

Devyn watched her pass, then turned back questioningly toward Buck. "Was it something I said?"

Buck simply shook his head. "She gets like that when we get delayed from doing our missions. Don't take it personally."

Devyn turned to watch Wilma marching quickly down the corridor. "Okay, if you say so."

Buck tapped Frack on the shoulder. "Why don't you go with Wilma. We'll meet you back in the lounge."

"Okay," the big man replied as he quickly moved to catch up with Wilma.

Devyn turned to smile at Buck. "Alone again," she smiled.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: heh heh heh."

Buck looked down at the golden droid and the computer hanging from its neck. "Yeah, alone. You, me, and the Three Stooges."

"Boop-bo-do-do-boop."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: hey, watch who you're calling a stooge."

Buck slowly lowered back into his chair. He placed his elbow on the table and rested his head in his hand.

"It's going to be a long night."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Frack and Wilma entered the lounge. After a quick scan of the inhabitants, Wilma caught motion out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see Devyn waving at her from a large booth table in the back corner of the room. Wilma took a deep breath, closed her eyes for just a moment, and bit her upper lip. Finally she slowly released her breath and started toward the table. Devyn looked up at both Wilma and Frack as they approached.

"Where's Buck?" Wilma asked. "I figured he'd be with you," she said with just a hint of sarcasm.

"He took Doctor Theopolis to meet Captain Curtis. He had a few questions he wanted to ask him. He said that he'd meet us all here as soon as he got done."

Wilma nodded as she sat down at the table across from Devyn. Frack remained standing at the head of the table. He cleared his throat. "What would you ladies like to drink?" he asked. "I can get a round of drinks while we wait for Captain Rogers and Fricholek."

Devyn snapped her head. "Who's Fricholek?"

"My brother. You haven't met him yet."

"I'll take anything non alcoholic," Wilma said. "And I know Buck likes those drinks called Auroras; get him two of them."

Devyn thought for a moment. "That sounds good. I'll take one of them too."

"I didn't think you were old enough to drink," Wilma muttered under her breath.

Devyn turned to look at Wilma questioningly. "Huh?"

Wilma shook her head. "I said, 'I think that's what Buck likes to drink.'"

Devyn smiled sweetly. "Oh."

Frack gave Wilma a half smirk out of the corner of his eye as he turned to move toward the bar. When he was out of earshot, Devyn turned to face Wilma.

"So what's the deal with the bodyguard?"

"I thought Buck was going to explain that to you," Wilma stated coldly.

"He didn't. He took Dr. Theopolis to meet Captain Curtis instead."

Wilma nodded. "Our contact on Tristania believed our situation warranted a pair of bodyguards, since both Buck and I have had numerous attempts on our lives recently."

Devyn smiled and shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe how calm you are about people trying to kill you."

Wilma shrugged one shoulder. "It happens in our line of work. You get used to it," she replied matter of factly.

"I don't think I would ever get used to that. You work with Buck a lot, don't you?" Devyn asked.

"Yes. He's the best partner I've ever had."

"He says a lot of nice things about you too."

Wilma placed both elbows on the table and propped her chin onto her folded hands. "Oh really? What has he said about me?"

Devyn jerked her head toward the door and waved. Wilma turned to see Buck standing in the doorway. She turned back toward Devyn. "We'll talk later," she said under her breath.

Buck strolled up to the table and sat down beside Wilma. The golden ambuquad moved to the edge of the table near Buck.

"So what were you two ladies talking about?"

Wilma and Devyn both shrugged. "Nothing," they responded in unison.

Buck furrowed his eyes and stared at both suspiciously. "Right," he said sarcastically.

"No, really," Wilma insisted. "I actually just got here myself."

"Oh, ok. You got the rooms?"

"I only managed to get two rooms. That's all they could afford. They tried to give us just one, but I managed to talk them into two. They're right on the promenade."

"That makes the room assignment pretty easy."

"Wilma and I can share one of the rooms," Devyn offered.

Wilma glared at her for just a moment. She thought about muttering a sarcastic comment, but held her silence. Instead she merely nodded. "Yes. You and I will get one room. Everyone else has to share the second room."

"You gotta do what you gotta do," Buck commented.

Just then Frack returned with a tray of drinks. He set two glasses in front of Buck and one each before Wilma and Devyn.

Buck wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "Man, is it warm in here?"

"The increase in temperature is due to the solar flare," Theo explained. "The shields of the space station are absorbing the heat from the flare."

"Are we safe?" Devyn asked.

"Oh, yes, quite safe. The shields are deflecting all the radiation, but some of the heat will seep through."

"Maybe they should turn up the air conditioners," Buck muttered as he wiped his forehead again.

"I believe they are trying to conserve power."

Buck noticed the two glasses before him. He grasped one of the glasses and smiled at Wilma. "You remembered!"

He quickly downed the contents of the glass.

"Yes, I remember you having a few too many of them last time we were on Solis Prime," she grinned. "So what did Captain Curtis have to say?" Wilma asked.

"Oh, I was just asking him about the solar flare and how often they occur around here. Apparently this star is pretty active."

"Arxcanum is a typical blue giant," Theo stated. "Blue giant stars have relatively short life spans, but they are very active. It is not uncommon to have several massive solar flares in an hour. However, with the sheer size of the stars, the same general area will flare on average decades apart."

"Thanks for the science lesson, Theo," Buck mumbled.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: blow hard."

Just then Frick entered the lounge and stepped up to the table to stand beside his brother. Devyn gasped slightly as she stared at the twins.

"Wow! How do you tell them apart?" she asked.

Buck shrugged. "I haven't yet. Well who's up for some blackjack?"

"Black jack?" Devyn repeated unsurely.

"Ten and Eleven," Wilma explained. She looked at Buck. "I'm in. Let's go."

"I think I'll just watch," Devyn said.

Buck grabbed his drink and exited the booth. He led the entourage over to the gaming tables. The dealer looked up when Buck and Wilma sat down.

"You're back," she said with a grin.

"Yeah," Buck smiled in return. "I need some more money to send home."

The dealer giggled. "I'll see what I can do for you."

Buck reached for his glass. Just as he raised the glass to his lips, the ambuquad reached out and pinched Buck's leg tightly. Buck winced and began to yelp in pain when the quad grabbed the drink with its other arm, smashing Buck's fingers against the glass.

"Owwww!" he screamed. "What the hell was that for?"  
>"Boop-bo-do-do-boop; Boop-bo-do-do-boop."<p>

"Are you sure?" Theo asked.

"Boop-bo-do-do-boop; Boop-bo-do-do-boop."

The droid placed the drink on the table and then let go of Buck's fingers. Buck rubbed his crushed fingers with his other hand.

"What the hell is he doing?" he asked gruffly.

A tiny hole opened on the droid's chest and a silver probe began to protrude. The probe continued to extend until it was directly above Buck's glass. Then the probe bent and dropped into the glass.

"Hey, hey, hey, that's my drink!" Buck protested.

The probe remained in the drink for half a minute before it retracted back inside the droid's body. "Boop-bo-do-do-boop; Boop-bo-do-do-boop."

"Oh dear," Theo replied.

"What?" Wilma asked curiously.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: the drink's been spiked."

Buck furrowed his eyes and raised his sore fingers up to his mouth. "Are you sure?"

"Positive, Captain Rogers. This drink definitely has been poisoned."

Instantly Devyn and Wilma moved their drinks away from them. Buck glanced at the golden droid out of the corner of his eye. "But how did he know?"

"Kimel is a medical ambuquad," Theo replied.

"Yeah, so?"

"Of course," Wilma said, perking up. "Medical droids are programmed to recognize different spectrums of fluids."

"Precisely. Since Twiki's body wasn't ready, we had to borrow Kimel from Dr. Estes," Theo elaborated. "Kimel is a medical droid. He is capable of distinguishing poisons in all kinds of fluids, including alcoholic drinks."

Buck leaned back in his chair. "Uh-oh, this isn't good."

"What is it, Buck?" Devyn asked.

He licked, then pursed his lips. "I already had one drink. That was my second."

Wilma started to rise. "We need to get you to the infirmary."

"No, Captain Rogers will be just fine."

"What do you mean, Theo?"

"The poison wasn't in the alcohol."

Buck cocked his head. "Huh? You're not making any sense. Was my drink poisoned or not?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: the poison was in the ice."

"So?" Devyn asked concernedly.

Buck and Wilma nodded knowingly. "That's pretty ingenious," Wilma said nonchalantly.

"I don't get it?" Devyn said. "So is Buck poisoned or not?"

Buck grinned wanly. "The poison was in the ice. It won't get into the alcohol until it melts."

Devyn nodded blankly.

Wilma rolled her eyes.

"My first drink I didn't give the ice a chance to melt."

Devyn's eyes lit up brightly. "Oh!"

Buck slammed his fist down on the table. "This is getting ridiculous," he exclaimed angrily. "Who knew we were even here?"

"What about everyone else's drinks?" Devyn asked. "Won't they be poisoned too?"

"If they used the same ice," Wilma said.

"Who got the drinks?"  
>Frack took a step forward. "I did, but I didn't really watch the bartender as he made them."<p>

Buck nodded absently. "Okay. Let's split up. Wilma, you take Frick and talk to the bartender. Take Kimel with you. He can determine if there's any more poison. I'll take Frack and check out the rooms Wilma got us. Devyn, you take Theo to the hangar bay and check out the ship's manifests for the past forty-eight hours." Buck shook his head, then looked up at the blackjack dealer. He shrugged and sighed heavily. "Keep the cards warm. I'll be back."

She smiled sweetly and nodded. "I'll be here all night!"

"So will we," Wilma mumbled as she headed toward the bar.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Buck gazed out the port window at the massive blue star in the distance. He drew a deep breath and held it for the longest minute before slowly releasing it in a long hiss. He stared at the star as long as he could without blinking. Tears began to well up and water his eyes. Finally he blinked and angrily turned away from the star. He wiped his watering eyes, sighed, and glanced back toward the star.

"You win again," he muttered softly. "Best three outa five."

He rubbed his eyes in preparation for the next epic stare down. He took another deep breath. He narrowed his eyes and turned toward the star. The contest had just begun when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see Wilma stepping into the deserted observation post. She smiled sweetly. Buck turned back to the blue giant.

"You found me," he uttered.

She nodded once. "I figured you'd be up here."

Buck blinked. "I figured you woulda gone back to the black jack table."

Wilma smirked slightly. "I did. That was the first place I looked."

"Ahh."

Buck did not return the smile. Wilma furrowed her eyes as she stepped up to place her hand on his shoulder. "Buck? You ok?"

He shrugged without turning to look at Wilma. "How far away do you figure that star is?"  
>It was Wilma's turn to shrug. "I don't know. Maybe twenty AU's. Why?"<p>

Buck paused for the longest moment. "I was just considering the similarities between this star and me."

"What do you mean?"

"That is a supermassive blue giant star that is literally billions of miles away, but look at the trouble it's causing even at this distance."

Wilma cocked her head and thought for a moment. "I'm sorry. I'm not seeing the analogy," she apologized.

Buck smirked wanly as he shook his head. "The star can disrupt so many lives from so far away... just like my past disrupts lives from so far away. Every time I turn around, something from my past leaps up and bites my ass."

Wilma grasped his arm with both of her hands. "Don't worry, Buck. We'll get through this," she assured him. "You always do. After all, you're like a bat."

Blankly Buck continued to gaze out the window for a minute before he turned his head in confusion. "A what?"

"A bat," Wilma repeated.

"A bat?"

She nodded. "Yeah. You have nine lives."

Buck grinned ever so slightly. "Cat."

Wilma smiled sheepishly. "Yes, cat. That's what I said."

Buck simply nodded and turned back toward the star. "So what did you find out about the poisoned ice?"

Wilma snapped her fingers. "Oh, right! Kimel didn't find any other poison in any of the ice bins. Apparently the only poisoned ice was in your cup."

"That's odd. Why just mine? Up till now we've both been targeted."

"Maybe our killer has something else planned for me."

"Or maybe he didn't have time to try to poison both of us." Buck sighed loudly. "I still can't figure out how they knew we were here."

"Maybe Theo found something in the station's manifest logs."

Buck shrugged. "I haven't seen him since we left the lounge."

Wilma nodded. "Did you find anything in the rooms?"

"Nope," he shook his head. "They're clean."

Wilma opened he mouth to say something, but slyly bit her lip and remained silent. Buck noticed out of the corner of his eye. He turned to face her and placed his free hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll be safe tonight."

"But if they can find us in the lounge, then they can find us in our rooms."

"Neither one of us will be alone," Buck reassured her. "You'll have Devyn and Kimel with you and I'll have Twiki and Theo with me. We're in good hands."

Wilma shrugged and sighed. "I suppose. It's getting late. Aren't you tired yet?"

Buck shook his head. "I'm too wound up to be tired."

Wilma nodded in agreement. "I think I'm going to bed."

"You go on ahead. I'm gonna stay here a little longer. This kinda reminds me of bonfires at Boy Scout's Camp when I was a kid."

Wilma looked at him with a blank look on her face. "Uhh..."

Buck smiled for the first time since she'd entered the room. "Boy Scouts Camp. We'd get a bunch of kids together and go out into the woods. We'd set up tents and go hiking or fishing during the day. At night we'd make a huge bonfire, roast marshmallows, tell ghost stories, and look at the stars shining over the lake. I used to really enjoy staring at the embers of the fire. It was like watching something alive. Every fire was different. It was really soothing."

Wilma grinned and then nodded. "Don't stay up too late," she scolded sarcastically. "We have a long trip ahead of us tomorrow."

Buck smirked out of the corner of his mouth. "Okay, Mom."

Wilma gazed into Buck's eyes for a long moment before finally turning. Silently she left the room. When the noise of footsteps had retreated back into the darkness, Buck turned back to face the star. He closed his eyes for a long minute. At last he opened them and gave the blue star half a smirk.

"Now where were we? Oh yeah..., best three out of five."

Wilma was almost to the stairwell when she remembered something she wanted to tell Buck before going to bed. Quickly she reversed her path and headed back toward the observation post. Just as she turned the corner, however, the sound of a pair of voices emanating from the room wafted into her ears. She immediately stopped dead in her tracks. Stealthily she slid up to the edge of the door and carefully peered into the room. Buck was still standing at the port window, but now he was joined by Devyn who had her arm wrapped around his waist. Wilma pressed her ear toward the conversation but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. Ever so briefly the thought came to her that she should just leave and go to bed... as she edged her way closer to the door.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

About two minutes after Wilma left, the sound of footsteps entering the observation post broke Buck's concentration on the star. He swore silently at his failure and then blinked several times to clear his once again watering eyes.

"I thought you were going to bed," he said softly without turning around.

"You sent me to the hangar bay with Dr. Theopolis," replied a sexy woman's voice that was not Wilma. "But I like the sound of that better!"

Buck jerked his head around to see Devyn coming up behind him. She smiled seductively as she wrapped an arm around his waist. She looked up into his face and frowned, noticing the watering eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Buck grinned ever so slightly as he rubbed his eyes again. "Nothing. I'm just trying to stare down this star to see who blinks first. I'm not doing so good."

Devyn stared at him blankly for a good long minute. "But stars don't blink," she finally stated matter of factly.

"I know," Buck replied with a frown. "That's why I keep losing."

Devyn continued to stare blankly until Buck almost broke out in laughter. He raised a hand to turn Devyn's head toward the port window.

"Give it a try," he offered.

She furrowed her eyes and attempted to turn her head back toward Buck, but he wouldn't let her. Finally she sighed resignedly and began staring at the star. After only half a minute she shook her head and gave up.

"This is stupid," she said.

Buck grinned. "Yeah, maybe you're right. But wasn't it fun?"

This time Buck allowed her head to turn to face him. She rolled her eyes and shook her head once. "You're weird."

Buck shrugged. "That's just a part of my charm."

For a long moment she stared blankly into Buck's face. "Sometimes I worry about you."

Buck simply smiled and nodded. "Don't worry. I'm fine. So what did you come up with at the hangar bay?"

Devyn shook her head to wake herself out of the stare. "Oh, right. We found that the last ship from Miney to dock here was two weeks ago. We didn't find anything suspicious in any of the records."

Buck absorbed the information slowly. "Of course you didn't find anything," he replied sarcastically.

"What do you mean?"

Buck shook his head. "Frick didn't find anything either. I was hoping Theo would be a little more thorough. Where's Theo now?"

"I took him to your room and put him back on the ambuquad Kimel. Frick and Frack were back. They told me you'd be up here. You wouldn't think so, but Theo is surprisingly heavy."

Buck grinned out of one corner of his mouth. "I'll tell him to go on a diet."

Devyn joined him in a smile. "He also said he wanted to see you as soon as you have time. He's got some news about someone called, uh, Black Crow One."

Buck's eyes lit up. "That's the first good news I've heard in a while! Let's go!"

"Where?"  
>Buck grasped Devyn's hand and spun her around. "To my room, of course. Let's go. I may have another job for you."<p>

Hand in hand they left the room and headed down the hall.

Wilma tried desperately to hear what was being said, but Buck and Devyn were talking just barely low enough that she couldn't comprehend anything. Suddenly she saw Buck turn around and grab Devyn's hand.

"To my room, of course. Let's go. I may have another job for you."

Wilma turned on her heels and sprinted down the hall to a corner. She stopped to peer around the edge. Buck and Devyn headed off in the other direction, still walking hand in hand. She followed them discreetly down a second stairwell to the living quarter's level. She saw them stop at Buck's door for a brief moment before they both entered. The door closed silently behind them. Wilma stepped up to the door and sighed heavily.

"Boy Scout Camp, huh?" she muttered through teary eyes.

Silently she moved across the hall to her designated apartment. The door opened and she began to enter, but stopped as she crossed the threshold. She turned her head to glare at Buck's closed door across the hall.

"This is the last time, Buck Rogers," she whispered. "Never again."

The door shut as she threw herself onto the bed.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Buck and Devyn entered the room to find Frick and Frack lying on their respective cots at the far end of the room. Just inside the doorway stood the ambuquad Kimel with Theopolis attached to its front. Buck started to say something but the lights on Theo brightened first.

"Welcome back, Captain Rogers. I see Lt. Thurston found you."

"Yeah, Theo. She said you have some information on Black Crow One."

"I do, but admittedly it's not much."

"Anything is more than what we've got right now."

"Agreed," Theo answered. "I was able to determine the frequency of the subspace message that was sent to Black Crow One."

Buck nodded and then waited for the rest of the information. When Theo didn't continue, Buck cocked his head to one side. "And?"

"I apologize, Captain Rogers. That is all I've been able to get so far."

"That's it?"

"I am sorry. With all the distractions I have been forced to endure-"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: I'm not a distraction."

"Yes you are, Twiki. You are keeping me from performing my duties at the level of proficiency that everyone, including myself, is used to."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Beep-be-de-de-beep."

"The message that was sent to Black Crow One was extremely complex. It was scrambled seventeen times, sent through eight different wave pattern distorters, six-"

Buck sighed. "Okay, Theo, we get the picture. At least we're one step closer to finding him."

"I still have been unable to decode the actual message itself. Since it came from an official Gaussian shuttle, and their authorities don't know that we even have the message, let alone the shuttle's black box, I have been reluctant to request their help in the matter. Our decoders have been unable to access any of the message yet."

"Well aren't our decoders based off of their technology?" Devyn asked.

"Yes, but they don't give us everything. This was a highly official, top secret transmission. Gauss has been instrumental in our technological breakthroughs, but they can't give us everything."

"So you're still no closer to actually finding Black Crow One?" came a voice from the back of the room.

Buck and Devyn turned to see Frick sitting up on the edge of his cot. If Doctor Theopolis weren't a computer, he would have sighed loudly. "No, not really. All I've managed to do is locate what frequency he monitors. Conceivably we could contact him ourselves, but all that would do is alert him to our attempts of finding him."

"So what you need is a Gaussian decoder."

"Not only a Gaussian decoder, but a high end, official decoder with top level protocols. And even then it would probably still take a considerable amount of time prioritizing which permutation to use, and who knows how many different times the transmission was coded in the first place."

Buck began to grin slightly. Devyn furrowed her eyes. "You have an idea," she muttered softly.

Buck nodded. "Theo, we have an official Gaussian shuttle sitting in the landing bay right now. Could you tap into the decoder from there?"

Theopolis thought for a moment. "It is possible I could find what I need on that ship. I am not making any guarantees, but it is better than what I have been able to do on my own here."

Buck immediately reached down and unbuckled Theopolis from the front of the ambuquad. He handed the computer to Devyn. "One more job for you before bed. Could you take him back to the landing bay and hook him up to the shuttle's mainframe?"

Tiredly she nodded, smiled. "Sure. Then I can go to bed?"

Buck grinned broadly. "Yeah, I promise."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll take Kimel back to the medical lab and plug him into the computer down there. Maybe he can get a better analysis of the poison he found in my drink. Maybe we can break down where it came from, how it got into my drink."

"Okay," she nodded again. "Sounds like a plan."

Frick and Frack stood. "We'll come with you."

Buck shook his head and waved them back nonchalantly. "Nah, that's okay. You two have done enough tonight. It's late. Besides, it'll only take a couple minutes before we're back."

"Okay, if you're sure."

Buck smiled at the twins. "Yeah. All we're doing is plugging them in, then coming right back. We'll be all right." He turned toward Devyn and then waved toward the door. "After you."

Wilma heard the door slide open and saw the light from the corridor stream into the room for a brief moment before the door slid shut again. She lay still for a long moment. Silently she debated with herself whether or not she wanted to begin grilling Devyn on her whereabouts. She didn't want to sound like another jealous woman, after all. But something inside her still wanted to know… just where she had been and why she was getting in so late. Finally she rolled over and sighed deeply, quietly. Maybe she didn't want to know after all. Devyn looked across the room and saw Wilma roll over.

"Oh I'm sorry," she said softly. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"What time is it?" Wilma asked.

"It's after three."

Wilma's eyes widened. Fortunately they were facing the wall so Devyn couldn't see them. "What? Why are you getting in so late?"

Silently she swore to herself. She hadn't meant to ask her that question. It had just slipped out. She held her breath, hoping she hadn't opened up the whole can of worms, as Buck would have put it.

Instead Devyn sighed heavily as she plopped herself onto the bed. "Oh Buck had me run Doctor Theopolis back up to the landing bay."

Wilma lay quietly for a moment before finally sitting up. "Why? Is he still looking for something in the ship manifests?"

Devyn shook her head. "No. Doctor Theopolis said he needed a Gaussian decoder to get any more information on Black Crow One. Buck suggested I take him up to the shuttle and plug him in to the mainframe. Boy was that a job! I had to go find maintenance, find enough… ahh, never mind. I'm beat."

"So Doctor Theopolis is up there right now?"

"Yes."

"By himself?"

Devyn hesitated for a moment. "Yeah," she said slowly.

Wilma whirled her legs off the bed and stood up.

"What's wrong?" Devyn asked. "Buck said he'd be okay."

Wilma smiled soothingly. "I'm sure he will be. But I just want to go up and check on his progress."

"He said it would take quite a while to narrow down the actual translation of the transmission."

"To Doctor Theopolis, five minutes is quite a while. Don't worry, I'll be all right. I've been sleeping for a couple hours," she lied.

Devyn shrugged. "Okay. I'll see you in the morning. Good night."

Wilma nodded. "Good night."

Wilma quickly left the room and headed for the landing bay. Once in the cooler corridor, Wilma breathed a resigned sigh of relief. Down deep inside she was happy that Devyn hadn't been 'spending quality time' with Buck, but she also wasn't happy that she cared if Devyn had been 'spending quality time' with Buck. She had sworn to herself that she wouldn't care anymore what or who Buck saw or did anymore… but that wasn't really the truth. She _did_ care. She cared more than she wanted to. She just wished that she hadn't revealed that much to her rival Devyn. She suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. She closed her eyes and looked over her shoulder toward the room she had just exited. Again she sighed and then shook her head. Could she really blame Buck for showing interest in that girl? After all she was younger, sexier, and she showed her availability.

Wilma swore to herself again. 'Get a hold of yourself,' she scolded herself inaudibly. 'This is no way a Colonel in the Earth Directorate should be acting!'

She took a deep breath and held it for several moments. When at last she released it all in one gasp, she gritted her teeth and began moving forward again. Her mind raced uncontrollably until she entered the landing bay. She closed her eyes for only a brief moment to control her emotions. Then she walked deliberately toward the Gaussian shuttle at the far end of the hangar, passing right in front of the Terran shuttle. She entered the Gaussian shuttle and quickly located Doctor Theopolis sitting between the two front seats.

"How's it going, Doctor Theopolis?" she asked cheerfully.

"Colonel Deering, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be getting some rest?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "I couldn't sleep. I decided to come up here and keep an eye on things. Any luck yet?"

"No, not yet. I have eliminated about half of the possible combinations of decoders used on this transmission."

"I guess it really is going to take some time then."

"Indeed. There is one good thing though."

"What's that?"  
>"Twiki finally decided to go into self-imposed temporary hibernation."<p>

Wilma giggled aloud. "Twiki's sleeping?"

"I believe I just said that."

Wilma continued to smile broadly. "Yes, I suppose that is a good thing!"

"Now if you'll excuse me, Colonel, I have about fifteen billion more permutations to run through."

"Oh, yes, yes of course. I'll leave you alone. I'll, uh, go out and, uh, check out the ship."

With that the cockpit fell silent. Wilma stood in the doorway for several minutes before slowly turning around and heading back down the ramp. She looked across the wide hangar toward the Terran shuttle that Devyn had flown in the day before. She managed to take one step toward the shuttle when suddenly a massive explosion sounded. The shuttle was immediately engulfed in gigantic flames reaching up towards the high ceiling. The force of the explosion was enough to nearly knock Wilma off her feet, even at this distance. When she once again found her footing, she tried to step toward the shuttle, but the heat was too much for her to bear. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Finally several automated drones began to converge on the shuttle. They sprayed the fires with fluffy, white foam for nearly twenty minutes before the fire finally succumbed. Wilma wanted to run to the shuttle to find out what happened, wanted to run to Buck to let him know another attempt of assassination had been made, wanted to run back inside to tell Theo,… but her body was frozen. Another twenty minutes passed as she simply stood there watching the commotion. Finally she forced herself to begin moving toward the now burned out shell of a Terran shuttle. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Wilma, are you okay?"

She turned to look up into Buck's concerned face. She nodded once weakly.

"What happened?"  
>"I don't know," she shrugged. "I just came up here to see if Doctor Theopolis needed some company when I saw the explosion."<p>

Buck's eyes widened. "You saw it?"  
>She nodded. "One second I was looking at the shuttle, the next second it was on fire. The concussion almost knocked me down."<p>

"How did it happen?"

"The bomb squad is investigating right now," Wilma answered. "I don't know how long it's going to take."

"Have you seen Frick or Frack?" he asked.

Wilma narrowed her eyes as she looked at Buck. "I thought they were with you?"

Buck shrugged. "They weren't in the room when I got back from the medical lab."

Wilma started walking toward the shuttle again and toward the several station personnel working on the shuttle investigation. When she reached the front of what used to be the shuttle, she stopped suddenly and looked back at Buck. Her eyes widened.

"I found one of them," she announced softly. "I can't tell you which one."

Buck stepped up beside her and looked down at the floor. He sighed. "Their mother couldn't tell you which one it is," he said soberly. "He must have had the same idea you did."

Wilma simply nodded. One of the men walking around the shuttle saw them and quickly approached.

"Are you Captain Rogers and Colonel Deering?"  
>"Yes," Buck replied quickly. "Do you know what happened yet?"<p>

"Not exactly, but we have an idea. From what we've been able to glean from the security footage and how the fire went, we're positive that this was no accident."

"What makes you say that?" Wilma asked.

"Well for one thing, the fire was too hot. I can't say for sure but it has the energy signatures of a neutrino bomb."

Buck cocked his head. "A neutrino bomb?"

The man nodded. "A neutrino bomb is usually a pretty safe way of sabotaging a long range ship. They work by collecting naturally occurring neutrinos. Most of the time they're very stable until they collect enough neutrinos to go critical. Then… boom! The worst thing about them is that they are really small and almost impossible to detect until after they go off."

"How long does it normally take to collect enough neutrinos?" Buck wondered.

"Do you know what a neutrino is?"

Buck nodded. "They're particles given off by stars that usually don't interact with matter whatsoever."

"Precisely," the man nodded. "Neutrinos are very hard to find, let alone capture."

"Then why make a neutrino bomb?" Wilma asked.

The man smiled wanly. "It was probably designed to blow up as soon as the pilot entered the stargate. For some reason which no one's ever been able to explain, neutrinos tend to hang around inside stargates. For all I know, maybe neutrinos are what makes stargates work like they do."

"Okay, so why did the bomb go off early? No one's activated the stargate for over twelve hours, not that we're really that close to it," Wilma asked.

Buck bit his lower lip as he started toward the nearest view port. "The solar flare," he announced.

The man smiled and nodded. "Precisely."

"I don't get it," Wilma said.

"Neutrinos come from stars," Buck explained. "They pass through our bodies every day, every hour, every second, and never interact with us. But solar flares give off a disproportionate number of neutrinos compared with a star's normal activity."

"And the stronger the flare, the more neutrinos," the man added. "Whoever activated this bomb probably never knew what hit him. With the number of neutrinos in this landing bay right now, it probably went critical the second he activated it."

"So we'll never know who planted the bomb."

The man shook his head. "Nope. And this poor guy just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do you know who he was?"

Buck nodded once, then shrugged. "Kind of."

The man narrowed his eyes. "Huh?"

"He was one of a pair of identical twins. I just don't know which one."

He nodded knowingly. "Ahh. Well when you see his brother, give him my condolences. I've got to go finish up here."

"You said you had security footage," Buck started. "Didn't you see anyone?"

The man shook his head. "We didn't see anyone planting a bomb. Whoever did it, they knew where the blind spots are on the cameras. The only good information we got was that the bomb went off inside one of the shuttle's engines."

Buck nodded. "Okay, thanks for the information."

He nodded in return, then headed towards the back of the shuttle.

Buck and Wilma watched for a couple moments before Buck gently pushed Wilma back towards the Gaussian shuttle. They started toward the shuttle.

"I guess you know what this means, right?"

"Hmmm?" she replied.

Buck took one more look at the burned out shuttle. "I guess Devyn's gonna have to come with us to Miney."

Wilma's heart suddenly stopped for the longest minute, then it began to race uncontrollably. "Oh joy," she muttered sarcastically under her breath.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

"No way!" Devyn stated emphatically.

"Why not?" Buck asked.

Devyn shook her head so violently that her blonde hair almost hit him in the face. "If you don't mind, I'll just wait for the Directorate to send me a new shuttle."

"But that could take hours," Buck tried to argue.

"Eight hours. I know; I already called. I'm willing to wait."

"But someone tried to kill you!"

"Yes! I know! And it's your fault!" she said angrily.

"But he might still be on the space station. If Wilma and I leave you here, we won't be able to protect you if he tries again."

Devyn turned and pointed at the burned out shuttle. "You're not doing a very good job of protecting me now!"

Wilma fought the urge to smirk in front of Buck. "She's right, you know." Buck turned to glare at Wilma, but she ignored the look. "She's probably just as safe here waiting for a new shuttle as she is staying with us. In fact, she might be safer here alone as long as we're not here."

Devyn nodded, smiled at Buck. "See? She agrees with me. Listen to the voice of reason, Buck."

Buck frowned.

"Besides," Wilma added, lowering her voice. "Do you really want Devyn to know the real reason we're going to Miney?"

Buck began to say something, but stopped.

"One of your bodyguards is dead and the other is missing," Devyn reminded.

"But you'll be by yourself for eight hours."

"I'll be okay. Captain Curtis has already offered me protection until the new shuttle gets here."

Wilma nudged Buck. "We really should get going. We're already going to be a day late because of the solar flare. They are expecting us, you know."

Buck thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I know. But what about Frick? Or is it Frack? We can't just leave him here."

She looked at her chronometer and then shrugged. "We really can't wait any longer."

Buck sighed. "Okay." He turned to Devyn. "I could leave Kimel with you."

"No way!" she repeated emphatically. "I'm not going to listen to them argue back and forth any more. I'll be fine, Buck."

Buck sighed again. "Fine. I'll see you when we get back to New Chicago."

She nodded. "Take your time. You take care of what you need to take care of first. I won't pretend to know what's going on, but you've got something serious hanging over your head. I don't want to see you again until you take care of it. I'm not an agent. I can't handle all the dangers you are obviously used to."

She stepped up to Buck and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Take care of yourself," she whispered. She turned to face Wilma and smiled. "Take care of yourself, Colonel. And him."

Without waiting for any more arguments, Devyn turned and quickly left the hangar bay. Buck watched her go for a long moment before he recognized the feel of a hand on his arm. Wilma grinned weakly as she gently spun him around.  
>"Come on, Buck. We can't wait anymore."<p>

He simply nodded as he allowed Wilma to lead him into the Gaussian shuttle.

The six hour trip passed in relative silence. Buck spent most of the trip contemplating a whole list of issues: how to deal with the ruling council on Miney when they got there; what his next move would be when they got back to Vaahn; would he ever see Devyn again… Wilma, on the other hand, spent most of the trip thinking about and worried about Buck. She was happy to have Devyn out of her way, but she hated to see Buck like this. Buck was not himself when he was quiet and contemplative. She didn't dare interrupt him, though. She knew he had a lot of issues to deal with, namely the whole holocaust issue. She wondered if he would ever be the same. She wanted to help him, but she also didn't want to push him away. So she waited in silence.

Doctor Theopolis continued to work on decoding the black box from the Gaussian shuttle. And thankfully, Twiki had decided to cooperate with Theo and not interfere in the thought processes of the master computer. So with all the droids and computers in silent mode, and the two pilots being in silent mode, the trip to Miney passed in relative silence. Until they reached the final stargate that would put them in Miney airspace.

When they exited the stargate, they immediately saw the small brownish planet lying ahead of them in the view screen. Buck reached to turn on the shuttle's transmitter, but before he could begin speaking, the radio sounded.

"This is Miney Space Control to unknown shuttle; please identify yourself."

"We are inspectors from Gauss," Buck lied. "We have been sent here from the Ruling Council of Gauss to do an unscheduled routine inspection. I am Captain Roberts and I am accompanied by Colonel Dooring. I am transmitting our call letters, coordinates, and orders. I request a vector to your space port."

"Affirmative. I will send you a vector as soon as we confirm your orders. Please stand by."

The radio went silent as Wilma gave Buck an unsure glance. He simply smiled at her and winked. A moment later the radio sounded again.

"You have been cleared to land."

"Thanks. We'll be down in a couple minutes."

"We'll have a party waiting for you to begin your inspection right away."

"That won't be necessary," Buck said. "I would like to wait until tomorrow to begin the inspection. Right now I just want a room and get a nice hot shower."

Wilma glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, but he raised a finger to stop her from saying anything. "Affirmative. We have a nice hotel near the space port you can stay. I'll make the reservations for you immediately."

"Thanks. That'd be great." Buck deactivated the radio and looked at Wilma. "I don't want a welcome committee waiting for us. If we are here to eliminate anyone, I don't want any witnesses."

She nodded.

When they landed, Buck and Wilma were led to their hotel room. Once they were alone, Wilma looked at Buck who had plopped himself on the bed and turned on the news vids.

"Isn't this a little too easy?" she asked cautiously.

Buck nodded once as he averted his eyes briefly from the vid screen. "Yep. That's why we are going to break into the government building tonight. When the council gets to work tomorrow morning, we'll be there waiting for them."

"You're actually going to go through with the plan of killing the council?"

Buck smirked slightly. "I have a few questions for them first which is why I want to get the drop on them."

"I see. And then?"

He shrugged. "If they give us the wrong answers… then we don't have a choice."


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

The short, thin old man walked through the lobby of the old, dilapidated office building. A young, pretty brunette looked up from her desk and smiled warmly at the older man.

"G'Morning, Minister Turon."

The old man merely grumbled something incomprehensible. Suddenly he stopped and turned to face the young woman. "I heard we got two inspectors come in from Gauss last night."

"Yes, Sir."

"Do we know where they are right now?"

She shook her head. "No. They left their hotel room late last night, but no one's seen them since."

He sighed deeply. "I see. Very well. If anyone finds them, let me know at once."

"Yes, Sir."

He sighed once more, then opened the door to his office. The door closed almost silently behind him as he slowly began to cross the wide office with his head down. He had almost reached his desk when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened as he saw a flash of blue coming from behind his desk.

"Who are you?" he asked the woman sitting in his chair.

Wilma simply smiled as she removed her feet from the top of the desk. She sat up, rested her elbows onto the desktop. Her eyes focused on something behind the old man.

"I'm the one you should be worried about," echoed a male voice from behind Minister Turon.

The old man turned slowly to see Buck step out of the shadows from beside the door. Buck waved the gun towards the old man. "Have a seat. Let's chat. You are Minister Turon, are you not?"

Hesitantly the old man moved to a chair in front of his desk. Coolly Wilma placed the pistol from her hip onto the desk before her. Buck moved to occupy the second chair in front of the desk, making sure to keep his pistol trained upon the old man.

"Yes, I am Minister Turon. I take it you're the inspectors who came in last night."

"We came in last night, but we're not here to do an inspection," Wilma answered with a straight face.

"Then who…?"

"Actually we were sent here to kill you," Buck stated matter of factly.

Turon sighed and nodded. "Let me guess: Vaahn."

It was Buck's turn to nod. "I see you're not surprised. Now tell me why we shouldn't kill you."

Turon paused as he closely inspected Buck and then Wilma before finally shrugging. "You do not look Gaussian, so all I can guess is that Vaahn gave you some sad story about how I've been trying to kill him for the past two years, which is why he's in exile."

Wilma narrowed her eyes. "So give us your side of the story."

The old man chuckled ever so slightly. "Of course, but it's nothing like what you've been told. The truth is Vaahn is in exile from Gauss, not from me."

"Huh?"

Turon nodded. "He tried to take over the Ruling Council."

"Why would he do that?" Wilma asked.  
>Turon sighed. "A few years ago we discovered an ore on Miney that, when refined, has twice the conductive properties of their current product, and it weighs less. Eventually this ore could revolutionize interstellar travel. Ships could be streamlined; they would weigh less, which results in less fuel consumption. New stargates could be built to remote sections of the galaxy. A bunch of possibilities. I assume he wants to get his hands on the product now."<p>

"So what does that have to do with Vaahn taking over the Ruling Council of Gauss?"

"Don't you see? Vaahn wants to take the ore for himself, and eliminate the last remnants of Minister Turon's rebellious offspring."

Buck shook his head. "That sounds strangely familiar," he muttered.

"Hmm?" Turon asked, turning his head.

Buck shook his head. "Oh, nothing. My government was famous for doing the very same thing. They put the Indians on reservations, then when they found gold there, they'd move them to another reservation somewhere else."

"Indians?" Turon questioned. "What planet are you from? I'm not familiar with a race called Indians.

"Earth."

Minister Turon's eyes widened for a brief instant before returning to normal. "Oh, I see."

"So you're saying that you have not tried to kill Vaahn?" Wilma continued the interrogation.

"No."

"And you never tried to kill us?"  
>"No."<p>

"And why should we believe you?" Buck asked point blank.

Once more the old man chuckled in a low hush. "How many space ships did you see in the hangar when you came in last night?"

Buck thought for a moment, then turned toward Wilma. "Three?" he replied with hesitation.

"And two of them don't work," Turon said flatly. "And the one that does work belongs to the Gaussian ambassador here. You see, it would be impossible for me to try to kill you or have you killed. We are no longer space worthy, and all of our communications are monitored closely by the Gaussian government."

"Really?" Buck asked.

Turon frowned. "You know how most civilizations progress through the years? Well, for the past five hundred years we have digressed. We've lost more technologies than we've gained. We were placed on Miney after losing a war with Gauss. The new leaders didn't have the heart to kill us all, so they found a planet to do it for them. This planet was just barely capable of supporting life five hundred years ago. When we were placed here, our population numbered over a hundred thousand. After a decade we were down to just over nine hundred. It's taken us four hundred years to tame this planet to where it can finally support us."

"Try living on Earth," Buck mumbled. "We lost six billion."

Turon narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?"

Buck glared at the old man as he gripped the pistol tighter. "We know how the holocaust on Earth started. We know that Minister Turon of Gauss declared war against the people of Earth," he hissed.

Turon cocked his head to the side. "That was five hundred years ago."

"Not for us," Buck mumbled.

"Who are you?" Turon asked hesitantly

Buck looked up into the old man's eyes. "Does the name Buck Rogers mean anything to you?"  
>The old man shook his head slowly. "Should it?"<br>"How about Wilma Deering?" asked the woman behind the desk.

Once more he shook his head slowly. "No. You say you are from Earth? How is it you know about the Minister Turon from five hundred years ago?"

"Don't worry about how we know. We know. We know all about Earth's holocaust, the Gaussian Civil War… everything."

The old man lowered his eyes. "Fine. It's all true. My Great Uncle did indeed try to sterilize the planet Earth."

"Uncle?" Wilma questioned.

He nodded. "Minister Turon had no heirs of his own. I am descended from his brother. Minister Turon was assassinated before he could execute his plan to sterilize Earth. Somehow in the process which we are not aware, he started the holocaust on Earth. His assassination triggered a massive civil war which his side lost. The survivors of the losing side were sent here because the winners didn't have the fortitude to finish the job. They thought we would rebel again so we were exiled here to die. And we almost did. Now I think Vaahn wants to finish the job his great grandfather started. He wants to eliminate all of us."

"Nah," Buck spoke up. "He just wants you and your council eliminated."

The old man turned his burning gaze upon Buck. "Do you honestly think he's going to stop there? Once the leadership is out of the way, he'll find a way to eliminate the rest of the population here."

"How would he eliminate the population of an entire planet?" Wilma asked.

Buck's eyes suddenly widened as he shot to his feet. Both Turon and Wilma watched him carefully as he walked to the window overlooking the old, gray, dreary town.

"Buck, what is it?" Wilma asked with concern in her voice.

He slowly turned to face Wilma. "I bet you dinner I know something else that was inside that little black box of his."

She gave him a quizzical look. "What?"

"It's all starting to make sense."

"What is it?"

He turned to look out the window again. "When we were on Earth we were both targets for assassination, right?"

She thought for a moment. "Yes," she replied slowly.

"Twice someone tried to kill _both_ of us. But when we were on Space Station Ten, only I was targeted."

"No, Devyn was targeted too."

He waved his hand nonchalantly in the air. "No, she doesn't count. She was just a decoy."

Wilma shook her head. "I'm not following."

Buck turned toward the old man. "He couldn't have sent those people after us. They don't have the resources."

"If we believe what he's saying."

The old man began to say something but Buck immediately cut him off. "That's easy enough to verify. We can have Theo run an analysis of their current technology used here. I'm in a position to believe him right now. But let's just say someone else sent those assassins after us."

"Who?"

Buck grinned wanly. "Someone who was a former high ranking official in the Gaussian Ruling Council."

Wilma's eyes widened. "Vaahn?"

"He still has a lot of contacts, including the aide to the Earth ambassador. That shuttle we flew here in was his. If you and I were killed on Earth, he could come forward and claim he has 'proof' that Miney put out the contracts on us to silence us. Earth Directorate would immediately launch a counter to eliminate the council here."

"But Vaahn sent the transmission to Dr. Huer to warn us."

Buck rolled his eyes. "Don't you find it funny that it reached Dr. Huer right _**after**_ the attempts on our lives?"

Wilma narrowed her eyes. "Okay, I'm starting to see your reasoning. But once we talked with Vaahn and we agreed to come here, he had no reason to kill us."

"Not both of us. If I had died on Space Station Ten, what would you have done?"

She lowered her head. "I would have come here and killed Minister Turon and his council."

"Exactly. We wouldn't be standing here talking and figuring out the truth."

"But what about Devyn?"

"She was just a last ditch attempt to coerce us or Earth to launch an attack against Miney. She's not only a Terran citizen, but a member of the Directorate Defense Force."

"Then that means…"  
>Buck nodded. "Frick and Frack were the ones trying to kill us."<p>

"Okay, that's all a fine theory, but you still haven't mentioned what else you think is in the black box."

Buck hesitated before turning away from the window. "Inside that box was all kinds of evidence from 1987. The pictures, the video logs… everything about the proposed assault on Earth. I'm sure its original intent was to prove the allegations against Minister Turon and Kentara."

Wilma frowned. "Go on."

"If Mr. Turon here is right, Vaahn plans to eliminate the population of Miney to take over the mining operation here."

Wilma suddenly snapped her fingers. "The formula to the DNA poison!"

Buck smiled weakly, turned back around.

"But wait a minute," she said, cocking her head to one side. "That formula was made for human DNA. It wouldn't work on Gaussians."

"That's what he's been doing during his two year exile," Turon interjected.

"Huh?" Buck asked, turning around.

"This 'little black box' you keep mentioning; I remember a story about it from our ambassador. Just over two years ago, before Vaahn tried to take over the council, there was a ceremony. It was the five hundredth anniversary of the end of the civil war. This little black box was revealed for the first time to the Ruling Council. Apparently there was a message from the original Vaahn."

"A time capsule!" Buck exclaimed. "So Vaahn learns the real truth about the holocaust and Gauss's involvement. He decides to take over the council and…" Buck suddenly stopped speaking in mid sentence. His eyes glazed over for a moment. "He doesn't want to release the contents of the box to the galaxy," he said slowly, turning to Wilma. "He wants to eliminate everyone who knows about the Gaussian involvement with the holocaust. He wants to become dictator of Gauss and he sent us here to pave the way to his victory over Miney."

"If you're right about all this…"

Buck sighed. "Didn't I tell you all the Vaahn's were fond of using strangers to do their dirty work for them?"

"So what do we do now?" Wilma asked.

Buck turned to face the old man. "We need to talk to your ambassador. I have a plan."

Buck opened the door to the hotel room and immediately heard Twiki's excited voice, and then Theo's urges for Twiki to be quiet.

Beep-be-de-de-beep: We've got it, Buck!"

"We?" asked Dr. Theopolis. "I don't recall you doing any of the calculations."

"Got what?" Buck asked.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Black Crow One!" he said excitedly.

"Really?" Buck asked calmly as he crossed the room and sat down on the couch.

"Now Twiki," Theo admonished. "We still don't know who Black Crow One is. I was simply able to finally identify the frequency of the transmission used by Black Crow One. I still don't know who accepted the transmission."

Buck turned to Theo with a boyish grin on his face. "That's okay. We already know who Black Crow One is."

"Excellent, Captain Rogers. Who is it?"

Buck's grin turned into a smile. "Theo, do me a favor. Can you send a message to Black Crow One on that frequency; text only?"

"Yes I can."

"Good. Here's what I want you to send: Buck Rogers is dead. Wilma Deering is dead. Miney Council is eliminated. Ready for Final Phase. Meet me on Space Station Ten in two days."

There was a brief moment of silence before Theo spoke again. "The message has been encrypted and sent. But to whom did we send it?"

Wilma grinned as she sat down beside Buck. "He's setting a trap. Maybe we can finally put all this behind us."

Buck nodded as he sighed deeply. "That would be a good thing. Let's go get packed. We need to get to Space Station Ten before he gets there."

She smiled at him. "I'm right behind you, Buck."


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

The shuttle bay doors opened and Vaahn stepped slowly but surely down the ramp toward the golden droid standing at the bottom of the ramp with a placard with Vaahn's name. Vaahn smiled as the golden droid spoke.

"Boop-bo-do-do-boop."

He gave a 'lead the way' hand signal to the droid. The golden droid turned and silently led the man through the busy hangar and then into the interior of the space station.

Vaahn briskly paced the width of the small, cramped interrogation room. When the door finally opened behind him, he whirled around angrily. "What's the big idea of detaining me like this? Do you know who I am? I'm…"

Suddenly his voice cut short as Buck turned the corner to stand in the doorway. He grinned at the man who had stopped in his tracks so suddenly that his left foot was still six inches off the floor. "Oh, we know exactly who you are. Please, Mr. Vaahn, have a seat. We have a few things to discuss." Buck waved a hand toward the golden droid who had stepped up beside him. "Come along, Kimel. We'll need you too."

Buck and Kimel entered the room and moved to sit at the table in the center. Patiently Buck indicated the chair opposite him. "Please, Vaahn. Sit down."

He waited for a long moment, then leaned back in his chair. "Fine; stand there. I don't really care. Now I would like to ask you a few questions, Black Crow one."

Vaahn's eyes widened for a moment. At long last he sighed and moved to sit down at the table. He set his elbows upon the table and stared at Buck. "Fine, I'll answer your questions, but I don't know who this 'Black Crow One' is."

Buck smiled knowingly. "Okay, we can play it your way. We'll let Dr. Theopolis explain to the courts how we traced the text message to you later. Right now, I'm interested in your explanation of why you wanted me and Wilma dead and how you planned to eliminate the population of Miney."

Vaahn shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Buck's smile grew slightly. "Somehow I knew you were going to say that. That's why we took the liberty of searching your shuttle when you landed."

Vaahn's eyes enlarged as he slammed both fists on the table. "This is a breach of interstellar laws! I'll have you…"

Buck reached into his flight jacket and pulled out a glass bottle. He shook it until the silvery liquid inside turned into an invisible gas. He then set it on the table in front of Kimel. Vaahn immediately backed his chair away from the table. Buck chuckled slightly.

"Ahh, so you do recognize what this is. Good. Now we can proceed."

"How did you…"

"Break the combination to your shuttle?" Buck finished. "We have several guests here, representatives from the Gaussian Ruling Council. In fact, they're watching us right now." Buck jerked his thumb to indicate the mirror behind him. "They are the ones who actually 'broke' into your shuttle. After all, your ship is still an official Gaussian transport ship, is it not? So legally it's okay for a representative of Gauss open it. Now please answer my question."

"What question was that?"  
>Buck sighed. "Why did you try to kill me and Colonel Deering? Why did you send us to Miney under your explicit orders to kill the entire ruling council?"<p>

Vaahn held his silence. Buck shrugged once, then averted his eyes toward the golden droid standing to his left. "Kimel."

The droid reached out one of its clawed flipper hands to grasp the glass flask on the table. Vaahn immediately lurched forward and shook his head. "No! Don't!"  
>"Then answer my question," Buck said through clenched teeth.<p>

Vaahn opened his mouth to say something, then suddenly stopped. A slight smirk appeared on his face as he leaned back in his chair. "You almost had me. You won't break that here."

"Why not?"

Vaahn averted his eyes to the mirror behind Buck. "Because it might spread to hurt… someone besides me. And you wouldn't want any witnesses to my… possible death. You would be guilty of…"

"Murder? It's only fair. You tried to have me killed at least three times."

"Prove it."

Buck smiled as he tapped Kimel atop its golden head. The two flippers on its hand closed. The unmistakable sound of glass breaking reverberated throughout the small room, followed quickly by the sounds of glass shards falling to the cold, metallic floor. The gaseous contents of the flask quickly dissipated and spread throughout the small room. Vaahn leaped to his feet and rushed to the corner furthest away from the flask.

"What have you done?" he asked in a panicked voice.

Buck then produced a small vial from another pocket of his flight jacket. His smile faded. "This is an antidote. Now talk. How long do you think you have before this vapor has run its course?"

"Okay! Okay! I'll talk! Give me the antidote!"

Buck shook his head. "Talk first… and then the antidote. Oh, you might want to talk fast."

"Okay! I tried to have you and Deering killed! You were witnesses to our involvement with Earth's holocaust! I was trying to eliminate all traces of our involvement! Earth has become a formidable force. If they ever demanded reparations from Gauss, we'd be ruined!"

"Is that why you tried to kill the Ruling Council of Gauss?"

"Yes! My plan was to eliminate everyone who knew!"

"Then why kill everyone on Miney?"

"Because the whole population of Miney knows the truth! On Gauss only the council knows, but Miney is different! They all know about the civil war and our involvement with the holocaust!"

Buck sighed as he stood up. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Six billion people died in the holocaust and countless others in your civil war. Don't you think that's enough?"  
>When Buck calmly headed for the door, Vaahn leaped to the table and grasped the vial. Eagerly he popped the cap and raised it to his lips. Suddenly his eyes bulged as he glared at Buck who was now standing at the open door simply staring at him.<p>

"It's empty!" he screamed. "You lied to me!"

The corner of Buck's lip twitched. "You don't need an antidote. That's not the DNA poison from your ship. You just assumed it was. But thank you for your confession. That'll make it go so much easier in your court-martial."

"B-b-but… the holocaust… Earth… what if…" Vaahn sputtered.

Buck frowned. "We did take one thing from your ship; that little black box you're so fond of. The items in that box happened five hundred years ago. Apparently you never learned the phrase that history repeats itself. I'm going to take care of this box and make sure no one ever sees it again. All of this happened in the past. It needs to stay there."

"But what if Earth finds out…?"

Buck shrugged one shoulder. "I'm not going to tell them. Are you?"  
>With that he turned and shut the door behind him.<p> 


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

The door slid open almost silently. Quickly Wilma scanned the dimly lit room. She was just about to turn around and leave when she saw a faint hint of movement at the far end of the observation deck. She smiled slightly to herself as she stepped into the room. The door slid silently shut behind her.

"I should have figured you'd be here," she said softly.

She stepped up to the muscular man standing at the view port overlooking the massive star in the distance. He turned to look at her and grinned ever so slightly. "Where else would I be?"

Wilma giggled and shrugged her shoulders. "The blackjack tables?"  
>Buck shook his head as he turned back toward the star. "Nah. Not in the mood for games tonight. So what's the good word from our Gaussian friends?"<p>

"They're wondering what you did with that little black box, but other than that they're willing to just let us go. They know we're not going to tell anyone."

Buck merely nodded toward the star. "Let's just say the information in that box won't be found ever again. Their secret is safe." He turned ever so briefly to wink at Wilma. "And so is ours."

"You shot it into the star," she said. It was not a question.

He stared into his non-blinking nemesis. "That's one little piece of history that won't be repeated ever again."

Wilma stepped closer and rested her hand on his forearm. "But that doesn't change history, doesn't change what we've done."

Buck paused for the longest moment before finally nodding. "What we did was save a planet from total annihilation. Actually, we saved two planets from extinction if you want to count Miney."

"But Earth was different," Wilma argued. "You lost a lot of good friends and family there."

He glanced at Wilma out of the corner of his eyes. "If we had done nothing, they would have all died in vain. A wise woman told me something a long time ago; as long as someone still remembers them, they aren't entirely gone."

Wilma smiled as she gazed into Buck's eyes. "That's not what I said."

Buck grinned and shrugged. "I paraphrased. And besides, I have some new friends and family now."

"And a new partner in crime?"  
>Buck narrowed his eyes. "Huh?"<p>

Wilma's smile grew larger. "Dr. Theopolis thinks he knows how to extract Twiki out of his sub-processors. As soon as we get back to Earth, Twiki will get a new body and should be back to normal in no time."

Buck smiled as he turned one last time toward the star. He was just about to say something when suddenly the star dimmed for the briefest of seconds before returning to its normal glare. Buck's eyes widened and he chuckled softly to himself. "Game, set, match," he whispered softly. "I win."

"What?" Wilma asked.

Buck simply shook his head. "The star blinked. I win."

She grinned slightly. "It was just a large space ship transiting in front of-"

He raised up his hand to silence her. "The star blinked. That means I won." He turned to look at Wilma's confused look. He smiled broadly as he put his arm around her shoulder. "It means we both win. Come on, Wilma. Let's go home."


	25. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Buck stepped into Dr. Huer's office. The older man looked up from his desk and smiled warmly at the younger man. "Ahh, Buck. It's so good to see you again."

"Thanks, Doc," he smiled in return. He turned toward the blue-clad woman standing stiffly beside the desk. "So what are you hiding, Wilma?" he asked knowingly.

"We have a present for you," she said with a wink.

She stepped aside to reveal a gleaming, shiny silver android behind her. The droid nearly ran forward toward the door. Buck quickly kneeled to one knee and hugged the rushing droid tightly.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep. Beep-be-de-de-beep."

A tear dropped onto Buck's cheek. "Twiki! You look good! You look like a million bucks!"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: all I need is one Buck."

Buck gave him another hug before he stood up, laughing. "I'm all yours, Little Buddy." He turned toward the beaming Wilma and Dr. Huer. "Thanks… to everyone; you guys, Theo, Dr. Estes… everyone… thanks. This means a lot to me."

"You've done so much since you've joined us," Huer started. "We were all happy to help you out this time."

Buck looked down at Twiki. "What do you say we go wreak some havoc and paint the town red tonight?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: I'm right behind you, Buck."

Suddenly the sidewall monitor blinked to life. Within only a moment the bright shining face of a beautiful woman dominated the screen.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep; uh-oh."

"Hello Doctor Huer, Colonel Deering. Hello, Buck, darling," she cooed sweetly.

Dr. Huer stepped lightly up to the monitor. "What can we do for you, Princess Ardala?"

She smiled and shook her head to remove the hair from her eyes. "Oh, I was just checking in to see if Buck was going to follow through with his promise."

Buck narrowed his eyes as he took a few steps closer to the viewer. "And which promise was that, Princess?"

She smiled sweetly and winked. "My coronation begins in three days. You promised you'd come!"

Buck smiled weakly as he turned to face Twiki. "Uh-oh is right," he muttered under his breath.


End file.
